Scotland-born triple-threat (director, writer and actor) Peter Mullan's Venice GOLDEN LION champion, his second directorial endeavor, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is a scathing exposé charts the story of three "fallen" girls' harrowing experiences in the notorious Magdalene Asylum in the 60s Ireland, where Roman Catholic church reigns with draconian measures to suppress women under the name of redeeming their sins.Before its title card duly arrives, the film briefly introduces the sins of our three protagonists, Margaret (Duff), is raped by her cousin during a family wedding, Bernadette (No one), an adolescent orphan deemed as a temptress simply because she flirts with a bunch of hormone- driven lads, and Rose (Duffy), a girl has just borne an out-of-wedlock infant. So burdened with these egregious injustice, they are sent to the asylum by their parents or caretakers, which is in fact a laundry run by nuns and governed by Sister Bridget (McEwan) with high-handed cruelty, in her first appearance Mullan conspicuously implies that God is definitely not her priority.Different personalities of these three girls are soberly singled out in their following dark days: Bernadette, the young rebellious one, learns a hard lesson after a failed escape plan, botched in the eleventh hour by her craven accomplice, a man of course, and becomes more cynical to her fellow inmates hereafter, No one, a headstrong starlet strikes with a piquant weight of strength and endurance; Margaret, is more flexible and sagacious among the gals, bears patiently her sufferings in exchange for a triumphant exit, and Duff nails her heroic facade wonderfully, she is the one, who voluntarily gives up a golden chance of escaping, and pulls through her trails and tribulations with a heartfelt declamation when she can face the God's men and challenge their muted consent of such atrocity; Duffy, uncannily resembles a young Joanne Woodward, her Rose is the meek sheep among the crop, offers a more subdued presence of forbearance and motherly nature.There is another victim here in the spotlight, whose fate is manifestly far less fortunate, to countervail the aforementioned three's ultimate salvation from the pit, Eileen Walsh plays Crispina, a mentally unstable unmarried mother, whose bob hairstyle doesn't match her bucktoothed features, but what happens to her encapsulates the appalling and despicable crimes those clergymen and nuns can ever inflicted on innocent souls under the aegis of the supremacy of God, no religion can ever account for those kinds of transgressions. Walsh courageously transforms a stunning performance out of Eileen's misery, her repeated, plangent bellow of truth is soul- shattering to say the least. Last but definitely not the least, the veteran British thespian, Geraldine McEwan, whose cinematic offerings are not so frequent, but here, she devotes herself wholeheartedly to bring about a daunting impersonation of an evil nun, driven by the monetary income, she is merciless to harness those helpless women while maintaining a holy-than-thou face of authority and patronization, only in the heightened crunch, her instinct tellingly betrays that there is something more important to her than her piousness to God.Overall, this clammy, unadorned survival drama is a gripping nay-sayer of God-awful religious abuse in our recent history, Mullan, most of the time, holds his sway over the thorny subject matter and never descends to levity, only in the scenes of Bernadette and Rose's final attempt to break out of their imprisonment, Mullan slickly transmits a whiff of comedy and triumphalism into their act, which works well to purvey an uplifting coda, yet, in another instance, two nuns obnoxiously tease about the sizes of their prisoners' breasts and their public hair, is just too nauseating to concur with Mullan's relentless opprobrium, nevertheless, this well-orchestrated film again emphatically attests the same old maxim: real life is so much worse than what happens in a movie.

It was male sexual license which brought the Magdalene asylums into existence. They were non-denominational safe houses for prostitutes and homeless women. Later, in the mid-nineteenth century the Church, in a alliance with the State, took them over. The goals were to continue providing services to "lost women," cover the costs through the work regime, and provide a social service to the State. In this arrangement, nuns, the lowest members of the Church hierarchy, served as the front line workers, and were no more party to the shaping of the institution, and its expanded client list, than were the rescued women they served.So, there were three forces behind the Catholic Magdalene houses: the prostitute users and rapists who created the inmates, the State which hid both sexual license and its victims, and the Church which gained communal and moral sway."The Magdalene Sisters" snuffs this broader context, choosing to see the oppression and suffering through the reductive lens of personal sexual repression. The nuns are not viewed in any sense as co-victims or sisters to their charges but as authoritarian, sadistic old maids. Though they work from dawn until dusk with house, factory, and prayer work, their lives are viewed as hypertrophied. Even in their only human moment during the communal viewing of "The Bells of St. Mary," they quickly revert to their stepmother harshness. That sexual repression owns their actions, determines their person is specifically underscored in the villainous stripping game they force on the inmates, as if they were male screws in a women's prison.If one had to choose the dominant symbols of sexual repression in western culture today, nuns, priests, women, and Catholic Ireland would no doubt first come to mind. "The Magdalene Sisters" pushes all these buttons--and sparks the film with some sexual scenes and sexual fun and games to boot.The sex abusive priest exists in the same mold as the young rapist at the Catholic-ridden music event. Their acts are not so much the problem as is their sexual repression born of a puritanical Irish Catholicism. What the priest suffers for his act is a prank which divests him of layers of hypocritical clothing. The laughable strip tease is no doubt more popular and desirable to a modern audience than some "politically correct" form of public justice. But the exculpation of criminal acts is still in place, as it is in the case of that same violent rapist lad--to whom nothing at all happens.Anyway, when the girls enter the gate, we're supposed to believe that their persecution begins right then. The world they have left behind (run by and for men) goes scot free, but the world they enter, a women's world, is a prison. The Sisters of Mercy are the torturers. And Mother Superior is the unbending warden, while nuns young and old, having suppressed all kindness, understanding and intelligence, are the merciless screws. Their incarceration techniques are are so effective that the State has washed its hands of its supervisory role.The social context is replaced by the private narrative. The political is psychologized. Women are pitted against women. Freud's myth of sexual repression, so powerfully adhered to in Hollywoodland, displace sexual license, and the State's/Church's central role in protecting it.In sum, Christ, a man, can understand Mary Magdalene; the Sisters of Mercy, working in the Magdalene homes, and all women, cannot. Because they are the scapegoat.

It's 1964 Ireland. Margaret McGuire is raped by her cousin during a family wedding. She's the one packed up and sent away. Bernadette Harvey is a flirtatious orphan. Rose Dunne is an unwed mother pushed to give up her child. Crispina is mentally challenged. They and the other girls all end up in a Magdalene Asylum for young women run by Catholic nuns. They do laundry earning money for the order without getting paid themselves. It is a brutal place where the girls suffer for their sins.It's a powerful indictment of this medieval system. The girls have a heart breaking story. Crispina is the saddest of them all. Nora-Jane No one is amazing in her acting debut. The story is told simply by Peter Mullan who is usually an actor.

Omg what film! Actors are amazing! This film upset me a bit to see how women were treated years ago. If this still happened today none of us would lead the life's that we do. Me personally have no religion even though i come from an Irish family, i cant believe that if there were a god why do the nuns believe that this is how they should be treated? Makes you realise how lucky we all are today to be able to live our life's the way we want. Cant believe i have only just discovered this film, i think it was bloody fantastic!! If anyone knows of any similar films i would be very grateful to hear from you. 10/10 isn't enough for this film.