This is a truly harrowing drama. Set in the ultra conservative Ireland of the 60s, it portrays how Catholic women were punished because they became pregnant out of wedlock. The direction is among the best I have ever seen. Kudos. I have not yet seen the better-known "Magdalene Sisters," but I'm sure it will not disappoint.
3 Reviews
What year is this anyway?
mark-pattison18 April 2004
Very unsettling subject. I wasn't aware that Ireland was a church run state until I saw Sinners (and subsequently read about The Magdalene Sisters). It reminds me of the Salem Witch Hunt, or McCarthyism or the Spanish Inquisition in that people were not allowed to think or believe whatever they chose. Imagine in modern times (these types of "homes" or "prisons" were finally closed for good in the mid-1990's!!) the state being able to control you for going against some antiquated church doctrine. It seems unthinkable. To my mind, living in a free and democratic country should mean you can believe what you choose and decide whether or not to allow a/your church to imprison you, beat you, take away your baby and then still keep you locked up. My mind reels that a modern society in the western world could allow this.
Not since 'Bottom' .....
sick twist-612 October 2002
Warning: Spoilers
************SPOILERS MAYBE************
Not since 'Bottom' when I was six have I felt this strongly about telly.It was on late and when it finished I just went and sat in my room.I couldn't sleep.I couldn't swallow.I thought I was going mad.Why hadn't I known? Why hadn't anyone told me that in Ireland in the 60s the church and state could imprison a woman for as long as they damn pleased for being raped at the wrong time of the month? Magdalen Laundries, where you sent your dirty linen to be washed by women who were pregnant out of wedlock.Who couldn't leave unless two men signed them out.Whose babies were given to nice rich families soon as they were born.Well, not THAT soon.They had long enough to get attatched to them.Broken glass and barbed wire lined the walls.Nothing was done to the babies fathers.Now I knew. As well as being a heart and brain tearing education,Sinners is well made drama.Great performances from everyone, including Ruth McCabe as the evil mother superior,Anne-Marie Duff as the new girl who starts to rail against the system that she always presumed knew what was best,and Elaine Symons, the bitchy ditz from Custer's Last Standup who was always funnier than her brother,here an 8-months-gone teenager jiving through the wrung-out hell of the laundry to Cilla Black with her best mate (who gets sent somewhere even worse when Theresa advises her to tell someone the truth about the resident priest.) By the late 70s most of the Magdalen Laundries-most of them-had closed down.Partly because of feminism,but mainly because by then most people had acess to a washing machine.
Not since 'Bottom' when I was six have I felt this strongly about telly.It was on late and when it finished I just went and sat in my room.I couldn't sleep.I couldn't swallow.I thought I was going mad.Why hadn't I known? Why hadn't anyone told me that in Ireland in the 60s the church and state could imprison a woman for as long as they damn pleased for being raped at the wrong time of the month? Magdalen Laundries, where you sent your dirty linen to be washed by women who were pregnant out of wedlock.Who couldn't leave unless two men signed them out.Whose babies were given to nice rich families soon as they were born.Well, not THAT soon.They had long enough to get attatched to them.Broken glass and barbed wire lined the walls.Nothing was done to the babies fathers.Now I knew. As well as being a heart and brain tearing education,Sinners is well made drama.Great performances from everyone, including Ruth McCabe as the evil mother superior,Anne-Marie Duff as the new girl who starts to rail against the system that she always presumed knew what was best,and Elaine Symons, the bitchy ditz from Custer's Last Standup who was always funnier than her brother,here an 8-months-gone teenager jiving through the wrung-out hell of the laundry to Cilla Black with her best mate (who gets sent somewhere even worse when Theresa advises her to tell someone the truth about the resident priest.) By the late 70s most of the Magdalen Laundries-most of them-had closed down.Partly because of feminism,but mainly because by then most people had acess to a washing machine.
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