The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411/
Written & directed by: Peter Mullan
Runtime: 119min
Cast: Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Anne-Marie Duff, Geraldine McEwan, Eileen Walsh
Genre: Drama
Tagline: In a place that defied belief their only hope was each other.

The movie was inspired by the documentary “Sex in a cold climate”, in which four former inmates were interviewed. It is based on real events, which makes it an even more powerful film. It focuses on the fate of three Irish girls in 1964, Margaret, Bernadette and Rose, who are given into the custody of the Madgalene Sisters Asylum to correct their supposedly sinful behavior and endure a dehumanizing abuse as inmates. Margaret gets there because she has been raped, Rose because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and Bernadette was simply too pretty and flirted with some boy. Even the reasons are staggering.

Life in such laundries was quite shocking. The inmates were put to endless toil, hard work was daily; the Sisters had them by the short hairs, they were physically and psychologically abused: beaten, mocked, severely punished. What didn’t people do in the name of religion? The heartless and hypocrite Sisters hid behind a religious façade. It is a very powerful movie, it shakes you. Geraldine McEwan’s performance is outstanding; she seems just right for the role of Sister Bridget, who is a strict, bitter, old hag. Her voice is calm and kind but also creepy. The asylum seems worse than prison. The treatment these “fallen” women got is cruel and brutal. There is one scene where they all stand naked and two Sisters mock them and laugh at them. And still Margaret, when she has the chance, doesn’t run away. Why? Some girls tried to escape or conformed to the lifestyle in some manner; others perished under the supervision of the nuns, like Crispina who became insane.

It is not a movie for the fainthearted. At the end of the movie it is reported that around 30.000 women were inmates in such institutions. The last such laundry was closed in 1996; absolutely shocking! What I can’t imagine is how could parents send their children to such places? A former inmate told the director that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse than the way it was depicted in the movie. Unbelievable. I think the only pleasant thing in this movie was that Irish folksong in the beginning, sung by the priest and accompanied by that wonderful drum.