Set in Ireland, beginning in 1964, so-called “fallen” women were considered sinners who needed to be redeemed. The film follows the stories of four young women – Margaret (raped by her cousin), Bernadette (too beautiful and coquettish), Rose (an unmarried mother) and Crispina (an intellectually disabled unmarried mother) – who are all forced by their families or caretakers into the Magdalene Asylum. The film details the disastrous lives of the four girls whilst they are inmates, portraying their harsh daily regimen and their squalid living conditions put on at the laundries.
Each woman suffers unspeakable cruelty and violence from the Mother Superior, Sister Bridget, despite her gentle-faced appearance and outwardly soft-spoken demeanour. She is characterised as sadistic and almost inhuman at times, as conveyed through her merciless beating of Rose in full view of Bernadette, or when she mockingly laughs at Una as she hopelessly clutches at her fallen hair locks.
The film also criticises the hypocrisy and corruption within the staff of the laundries. Sister Bridget relishes the money the business receives and it is suggested that little of it is distributed appropriately. Those who liken themselves to Mary Magdalene, who deprived herself of all pleasures of the flesh including food and drink, eat hearty breakfasts of buttered toast and bacon while the working women subsist on oatmeal.
In one particularly humiliating scene, the women are forced to stand naked in a line after taking a communal shower. The nuns then hold a “contest” on who has the most pubic hair, biggest bottom, biggest breasts and smallest breasts. The corruption of the resident priest, Father Fitzroy, is made very clear through his sexual abuse of Crispina.
The Magdalene Sisters is a 2002 Irish-British drama film written and directed by Peter Mullan, about three teenage girls who were sent to Magdalene Asylums (also known as ‘Magdalene Laundries’) homes for women who were labelled as “fallen” by their families or society. The homes were maintained by individual religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.
Peter Mullan has remarked that the film was initially made because victims of Magdalene Asylums had received no closure in the form of recognition, compensation or apology, and many remained lifelong devout Catholics. Former Magdalene inmate Mary-Jo McDonagh told Mullan that the reality of the Magdalene Asylums was much worse than depicted in the film. Though set in Ireland, it was shot entirely on location in Dumfries and Galloway, South-West Scotland.
The Magdalene Sisters (2003)
Directed by: Peter Mullan
Starring: Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray, Britta Smith, Frances Healy, Eithne McGuinness, Rebecca Walsh
Screenplay by: Peter Mullan
Production Design by: Mark Leese
Cinematography by: Nigel Willoughby
Costume Design by: Trisha Biggar
Art Direction by: Caroline Grebbell, Jean Kerr
Makeup Department: Candice Banks
Music by: Craig Armstrong
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: August 29, 2003
Visits: 98
