Adapted from the prize-winning 2021 book by Claire Keegan, this subtle Irish drama is about the so-called ‘Magdalene Laundries’, the mainly Catholic Church-run institutions where ‘fallen women’ were housed and exploited. While the shameful practice, which ran from the 18th century to the late 20th, was previously fully explored in Peter Mullan’s acclaimed, inmate-focused The Magdalene Sisters (2002), Tim Mielants’ (2019’s Patrick) '80s-set drama explores it from an outsider’s perspective.
Living in New Ross, County Wexford, with wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh), ‘soft-hearted’ father-of-five Bill (Cillian Murphy) is an introspective coal merchant whose past traumas erupt to the surface when, during the Christmas period, he delivers his wares to a local convent. There, quite by accident, he discovers a young, dishevelled girl cowering in a coal shed.
