The Magdalene sisters
(DVD) 

Originally released as a motion picture in 2002.

Widescreen (aspect ratio 1.85:1); enhanced for 16x9 televisions; dual-layer format.

Special features: documentary "Sex in a cold climate" (1997, 50 min.) / Testimony Films for Channel Four ; producer [and director], Steve Humphries ; narrator, Dervia Kirwan. Presents a disturbing portrait of Magdalen asylums, run by unfeeling and sometimes sadistic Catholic nuns in Ireland for over a hundred years. The purpose of the asylums, named after the repentant biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene, was to correct the supposed sexual deviance of young women. The criteria of deviance were so broad some Magdalenes didn't know why they had been put away. The film follows the stories of four women who were detained in Magdalen asylums between the 1940s and the 1960s.

Director of photography, Nigel Willoughby ; editor, Colin Monie ; music composer, Craig Armstrong ; costume designer, Trisha Biggar ; production designer, Mark Leese ; special effects supervisor, Steve Breheney.

Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray, Britta Smith, Frances Healy, Eithne McGuinness.

In Ireland in the 1960s, four women were sent to the Magdalene Laundries, an institution for "fallen" women, where they will atone for their sins through a regimented life of work and prayer. They all had to work in the laundry, where the strict nuns would break everyone's wills through sadistic punishment. Based on a true story.

MPAA rating: R; for violence/cruelty, nudity, sexual content and language.

DVD; Region 1, Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound.

Closed-captioned. English and French soundtracks with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.