The Magdalene Sisters (2002) on Netflix
In 1964 Ireland, families send daughters they call fallen to a Magdalene asylum run by Sister Bridget. Margaret, Bernadette, Rose and Crispina arrive and are set to laundry work under the nuns.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.7/1030,250 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
Margaret is brought to a Magdalene laundry in 1964 after being raped by her cousin. Bernadette is handed over for being too beautiful and flirtatious, Rose for having a child outside marriage, and Crispina, an unmarried mother with an intellectual disability, is placed there too. Ireland at the time called such women fallen and held that they needed to be redeemed. Their families or caretakers commit them to the nuns, who run long days of laundry work in squalid conditions. Sister Bridget, the Mother Superior, keeps a soft-spoken manner while the women endure beatings and humiliation. The nuns eat buttered toast and bacon while the residents subsist on oatmeal porridge.
Cast
- Britta Smithas Katy
- Eithne McGuinnessas Sister Clementine
- Frances Healyas Sister Jude
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter Mullan said he made the film because victims of the Magdalene asylums had received no recognition, compensation or apology; a former inmate of the asylums told him that the reality had been much worse than the film depicted.
- Noone, who played Bernadette Harvey, secured the role following an open audition held in Galway, Ireland, where she was at the time studying science in college; director Peter Mullan wanted an actress who could change drastically from feisty and mischievous into someone very dark and damaged.
- Although the script of The Magdalene Sisters is fictional, it was based on four testimonies reported in the documentary Sex in a Cold Climate.
