17 Mar 2004
UK, Ireland
2002
119 mins
Director: Peter Mullan
The last Magdalene Asylum closed in Ireland in 1996. Only since then has the true horror of conditions in these institutions emerged. Set in 1960’s Ireland, this is the compelling and emotional experience journey following the lives of four ‘fallen women’. While the World is swept by women’s liberation, these girls are rejected by their families for ‘sins of the flesh’ and thrown to the mercy of the Catholic Church. There, they are stripped of their liberty and dignity and condemned to indefinite servitude in the Magdalene laundries.