Condemned by the Vatican and the U.S. Catholic League for being anti-Catholic, Scottish actor-turned-director Peter Mullan's devastating drama is a shocking expose of little-known subject: The Magdalene Asylums of Ireland and Scotland, where "dishonored" women were remanded to the dubious care of the notoriously harsh Sisters of Mercy sect. Estimates suggest that some 30,000 Irish and Scottish Catholic girls unfortunate enough to have been unwed mothers, rape victims or simply perceived as promiscuous spent years toiling as unpaid slaves in the Asylums' laundries while their souls were supposedly undergoing rehabilitation. Never convicted of any crime, many of these ...
Released:
2003
Rated:
R
Length:
119 mins