Magdalene Sisters

Theatrical Release Date: 2003 08 01 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 031398139140

Studio: Miramax Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Rape & Sexual Abuse]

Summary: One of the Catholic Church's most infamous institutions is the focus of this controversial independent feature from Scottish actor and erstwhile director Peter Mullan. Set in 1964, The Magdalene Sisters hones in on the Magdalene convent, a place where purportedly wayward young women have been sent by their families for reform. Many of the girls are locked up in the institution for questionable "sins," and the movie presents several of them as case studies: Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), who is sent away after being sexually assaulted by a cousin at a wedding; Rose (Dorothy Duffy) and Crispina (Eileen Walsh), who are both unwed mothers; and Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), whose licentiousness has raised the ire of her former orphanage. It soon becomes clear that the reformatory is more of a manual-labor prison, however, as their girls are forced to work long hours and endure endless physical humiliation and abuse at the hands of the head nun, Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan). As their degradation at the hands of the convent's administrators increases, each girl plots her escape, but each finds that she's never far enough from the sisters' all-encompassing reach. The Magdalene Sisters premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was awarded the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion; the Vatican officially condemned the film after its premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Discovery Award – Toronto International Film Festival Audience Golden Reel Award – Ljubljana International Film Festival Audience Award – Los Angeles Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award – National Board of Review Golden Lion – Venice International Film Festival Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards

Magdalene Sisters

Format: DVD

Release Date: 06/14/2011

Runtime: 120 Minutes

Michael Hastings

Crafted with the kind of care and urgency that can only come from being personally invested in a subject, writer/director Peter Mullan's scathing expos? The Magdalene Sisters goes above and beyond predictable movie-of-the-week requirements to offer up a harrowing, first-hand view of the kind of inhumanity and persecution that might, in other times and circumstances, warrant the attention of a group like Amnesty International. From its opening scene -- involving a young woman's rape at a family gathering, told without dialogue -- the film adopts an unflinching, distant-but-sympathetic tone that creates a genuine sense of outrage and suspense for the viewer, without ever pandering to easy sympathy. The young women in Mullan's film -- brilliantly embodied by Anne-Marie Duff, Dorothy Duffy, Nora-Jane Noone, and Eileen Walsh -- don't spend much time pondering their assignment to the Magdalene convent/asylum the way they would in Girl, Interrupted or any one of a number of inferior, American "wayward girl" films. Instead, theirs is a more tactical, resigned existence, one in which escape is elusive and bitter compromise is the only means for survival. Where other directors might play up the syrupy bonding between the girls, Mullan doesn't shy away from the in-fighting and the resentment among them, even as he shows the small ways in which they try to protect one another. If the director's representation of the convent's Catholic administration is a more than a little sadistic, it's very much in line with the acts of brutality and humiliation we see them commit, as well as with Mullan's unerring effort to give the audience his lead characters' point-of-view. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Julie Austin  Actor 
Sean McDonagh  Actor 
Peter Mullan  Director 
Peter Mullan  Screenwriter 
Ed Guiney  Executive Producer 
Paul Trijbits  Executive Producer 
Craig Armstrong  Composer (Music Score) 
Frances Higson  Producer 
Anne-Marie Duff  Actor 
Dorothy Duffy  Actor 
Eileen Walsh  Actor 
Nora-Jane Noone  Actor 
Geraldine McEwan  Actor 
Mary Murray  Actor 
Britta Smith  Actor 
Frances Healy  Actor 
Eithne McGuinness  Actor 
Phyllis McMahon  Actor 
Rebecca Walsh  Actor 
Eamonn Owens  Actor 
Chris Simpson  Actor 
Sean Colgan  Actor 
Daniel Costello  Actor 

Country: UK