The Magdalene Sisters

SYNOPSIS

The Magdalene Asylums in Ireland were run by the Sisters of Mercy on behalf of the Catholic Church. Young girls were sent there by families or orphanages and once there, were imprisoned and sent to work in the laundries where they could atone for their sins. Their sins varied from being an unmarried mother to being too pretty or too ugly or simple minded or too clever or being a victim of rape and talking about it. And for their sins they worked 364 days a year unpaid, they were half starved, beaten, humiliated, raped, their children forcibly removed from them. Their sentence was indefinite. Thousands of women lived and died there. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed in 1996, four years ago.

This film is from the point of view of four of these young women in the 1960s, an era mistakenly seen by some as a time of unchallenged female liberation. These young Catholic women find themselves in an almost medieval nightmare whilst the outside world tacitly (or in some cases actively) support a theocratic state. It looks at how their personalities develop for better and for worse in an environment controlled and dominated by celibate women, servants of God, Brides of Christ. In their own ways the girls refuse to be beaten but what victory is there if they remain imprisoned as little more than slaves? One gets out in a heartbreakingly banal fashion; one is imprisoned in a mental asylum, two finally rebel, run away, escape.

It’s a fictional film that unfortunately happens to be true.


Release Date : 9th Octobet,2003

Category : IIB

Running Time : 119 mins

Cinema:

AMC Festival Walk / Broadway Cinematheque/ UA Pacific Place /

Website: www.luckyred.it/magdalene