The Magdalene Sisters is an auteur film set in 1960s Ireland. A powerful film, it severely denounces the harsh treatment meted out by the religious institutions of the time to young girls deemed “promiscuous” or subversive…
Movie Poster – The Magdalene Sisters
Margaret, Rose and Bernadette are 3 young girls arriving at Magdalene Convent.
Margaret is locked up for being raped by her cousin, Rose for having a child out of wedlock, and Bernadette for her seductive tendencies towards men.
Deemed “subversive” by their families and society as a whole, the 3 young women had to make amends in the convent, atone for their sins, and endure an unspeakable ordeal of malnutrition, hard work, physical abuse and sleep deprivation…
Some will escape unscathed, while others will never manage to escape the convent that broke them…
1960. Tens of thousands of Irish women were locked up in convents for their subversive past, subject to the religious authority of nuns. Their main activities were washing the laundry of neighboring villages, keeping the convent clean, and praying to God for their sinful past.
All free of charge, in a prison-like environment where food is in short supply.
At the laundromat, it’s your souls you’ll be redeeming.
This is assured in the film by the mother superior, a horrible authoritarian figure who not only uses radical means to make herself obey, but also infamous physical abuse. Historically, the activities of these “prisoners” enabled the convents to grow rich, benefiting from free labor just waiting to be fed.
The length of these young women’s confinement was indeterminate, and many spent their entire lives in these convents until their death. A small number even ended up taking the veil and becoming permanent nuns.
The Magdalene Sisters is a brutal denunciation of the clerical excesses of the time, and their influence on society as a whole… Ireland, an extremely religious country, adheres to a strict set of rules in order to respect the “good morals” of the time. Thus, childbirth out of wedlock, or women’s seductive tendencies towards men, are severely punished by society as a whole, starting with the families concerned…
Particularly harsh scenes then show angry fathers and mothers, disowning their daughters, beating them, insulting them, and abandoning them in his Magdalene prisons, where the sisters, presumably delighted, take advantage of a situation where they can subjugate these young girls at their leisure…
The Magdalene Sisters is a film that plays on our emotions. It’s hard not to jump at the spectacle of clerical abuse and the misery of these modern-day slaves, who in truth have done no harm to anyone…
Winner of the Lion d’Or award, Peter Mullan portrays these convents-laveries, veritable prisons where confinement is a torture to which each woman eventually resigns herself… Between madness and the rage to escape, there’s a fine line to be drawn…
It’s in this setting that the actresses demonstrate their talent, through sober, realistic acting that literally hooks us into the film. Very good auteur cinema, then, even if we can criticize the film for some unnecessary length and overly Manichean images.
4.06/5 (17 votes)
