Review of The Magdalene Sisters (2002) by Guillaume C — 28 Mar 2009

If you're like me you took one look at the movie poster (or DVD cover) and assumed that The Magdalene Sisters was a sexy Irish comedy or a romantic drama. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a film that's serious, tragic, and worst of all, true.

For many years the Catholic church of Ireland sanctioned 'asylums' for wayward girls called "Magdalene Laundries". They were, in fact, little more than sweat-shops that incarcerated women for such heinous criminal offenses as flirting with boys or 'allowing' themselves to be raped. This film is an indictment of those puritanical institutions that, surprisingly, were still active well into the 1990s.