Religious repression and moral hypocrisy are targeted by writer/director Peter Mullan in this bitter indictment of the Magdalene Asylums - convent laundries that were run like workhouses - into which "fallen women" were forced in order to cleanse their "sins". Following three wayward teenagers sent to one such asylum in the 1960s, Mullan's fictionalised version of actual events keeps soapy sentimentality at bay, thanks mainly to the compelling performances of a young cast of unknowns - Eileen Walsh is especially outstanding as the tragic Crispina. Geraldine McEwan is frighteningly good as the bullying Mother Superior, hoarding money from the sanctified exploitation of the girls, beating them out of spite and turning a blind eye to their sexual abuse at the hands of the priests. Often uncomfortable to watch, Mullan's controversial chronicle is not without flaws in its credibility, but these are compensated for by his sincere intentions and moving depiction of lost souls, so stripped of their dignity that they view this living hell as their only refuge.