{image1}If the wages of sin are death, then what retribution awaits those who punish others that have not sinned? Sadly, in writer/director Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters," the victims seem to bear all the scars.
Set in 1960s Ireland, three teenage girls are sent to the Magdalene sisterhood asylum. Rose (Dorothy Ruffy) because she had a child out of wedlock; Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) for being pretty and not shunning the attention paid to her by the boys while she was in an orphanage; and Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) who was "guilty" of being raped by her cousin.
Sadly, the film's poster and promo materials seem to orphan Crispina (Eileen Walsh), another girl whose story -- and performance -- provide the deepest emotional moments of the two-hour film, shot in a color so drab that it feels almost monochrome. The seemingly mentally unstable Crispina's story appears to be an aside, but she gets the worst of it from the nuns, from the priest and afterward.
Based on a true story, "The Magdalene Sisters" is the story of these four girls -- along with the others in the asylum -- and their daily struggles to understand why they are basically imprisoned in a place where they are harshly disciplined and worked nearly as slaves without pay. And why does society view them all as whores and lunatics?
It seems that nearly each week one is caught and beaten for attempting to escape or another attempts suicide or ponders it. Some are so destroyed by the system that they lose all hope and sign on to spend the rest of their lives there as one of the nuns that lord over the girls beating them with straps and making a game of lining them up naked to see who has the biggest breasts, the biggest bottom and the hairyest genitalia.
If they dare speak out against the physical abuse or their forced labor in the nuns' laundry business, which seems to provide a healthy supply of cash -- or if they even speak at all -- they face brutal reprisals and the threat of being shipped off to a mental hospital.
The Catholic Church certainly won't be flattered by its depiction in this hard-hitting film, but horror stories like these exist and Mullan's powerful and striking film brings them vividly and painfully to life. It gives you more than a little pause, especially if you've known someone who was raised in a place like Magdalene.
You'll flinch and you'll wince, but you'll be thankful that you never spent a day of your life at Magdalene sisterhood asylum (unless, of course, you did) and you'll be thankful that there's still a filmmaker out there who is unafraid to tackle difficult subjects like these.
"The Magdalene Sisters" opens Fri., Sept. 5 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
