The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters is a Franco-British dramatic film of Peter Mullan left in 2002. It received the gold Lion to the 59e Mostra of Venice the September 8th 2002.

Synopsis

In Ireland, in the county of Dublin, in 1964.

At the time of a marriage, Margaret is violated by his/her cousin. Shame falls down on all the family. In the small hour, the priest of the parish comes to seek Margaret.

Bernadette is boarder in an orphanage. While growing, become pretty, it causes the covetousness of young people of the district. Considering that its nature and its character intend it in the worst case, the direction of the orphanage then entrusts it to the single institution likely to maintain it in the right way.

Rose, who is not married, has just given rise to a little boy. Separated from its baby, it is taken along to the convent of the sisters of Marie-madeleine.

The three young women are immediately confronted with Sœur Bridget, who directs the establishment and explains to them how, by the prayer and work, they will expieront their sins and will save their heart.

Convents of the Madeleine

The film is directly inspired by the history of the Couvents of the Madeleine. In these establishments, created in Ireland at the 19th century, the girls considered as lost by their families were placed there for expier and to repurchase their sins. They were violated women, young mothers, the orphan ones.

The polemic

When the film was rewarded for the Gold Lion in Venice, the pontifical daily newspaper Osservatore Romano protested against what he saw like a scathing attack anticlerical with the vision manichéenne. However, Peter Mullan had declared that the film “was not directed against the church”.

However, the film was carried out with the assistance and the attention of old a boarder of the convent, as of a nun which framed one of these establishments. They had as a function to take care of the authenticity of film.

As for the Church, she did not formulate any excuse to date nor proposed any compensation for these women, who, of the years during, worked for her account. In addition, they are well filmed testimonys of the victims which were the independent source of information of the realizer. But the polemic raised by the Vatican, and which have a certain echo in Italy, led a certain number of witnesses to start to speak in Ireland, coming to contradict the denials of the clergy.

Distribution

Geraldine McEwan: Sister Bridget
Anne-Marie Duff: Margaret
Nora-Jane Noone : Bernadette
Dorothy Duffy: Rose/Patricia
Eileen Walsh: Crispina/Harriet
Mary Murray : Una
Britta Smith: Katy
Frances Healy : Sister Jude
Eithne McGuinness: Sister Clementine
Phyllis MacMahon: Sister Augusta
Rebecca Walsh : Josephine
Eamonn Owens : Eamonn, Margaret' S brother
Chris Simpson: Brendan
Sean Colgan: Seamus
Daniel Costello: Father Fitzroy

See too

Card on IMDB -- The Internet DataBase Movie (in English)
Présentation on hello-movies
Présentation criticizes on filmdeculte.com
Article of Wikipédia.org on Magdalene Asylums (in English)

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