by MARK SLUTSKY

Three young women are carted off from their homes at the beginning of The Magdalene Sisters, a new film from director (and sometimes actor) Peter Mullan. Their abductors aren’t kidnappers or sinister government operatives, but rather their own families; their destination one of the many Magdalene Asylums, run by the Catholic Church in Ireland until the last one closed in 1996. And the justification? One has had a child out of wedlock. Another is acting too flirty. And the last, well, she’s been raped by her cousin. For this they are all condemned to gruelling labour and discipline in the Magdalene laundries, ostensibly to expunge their sins.

Though not based on specific, actual incidents, The Magdalene Sisters is nonetheless based on the truth, if you believe the evidence the filmmakers present - that over 30,000 women were interned in such institutions over the years, that they were worked viciously, beaten for the most minor of infractions, and not permitted to leave. Already the film has drawn protests from the Vatican and the Catholic League.

It’s a terrible story. But as a movie, it’s quite fascinating. Mullan (who also wrote) sets it up basically as a prison movie - the arbitrary rules, the humiliating punishments, the escape attempts. And of course, the warden, in this case head nun Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), who brings a terrifying, slightly gleeful menace to the role. We see the institution entirely through the eyes of its captives - mainly Rose (Dorothy Duffy), the mother whose child is taken from her, Margaret (Annie-Marie Duff), the rape victim, Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), the so-called "temptress," and Crispina (Eileen Walsh), another young mother. All are quite fine, especially in roles that call for little dialogue, as talking is forbidden most of the time.

Now, the movie can be heavyhanded - we don’t need that many shots of money passing through the nuns’ hands to realize that someone is profiting from all this, and showing the nuns delighting in watching The Bells of St. Mary’s is a little too consciously ironic. But it’s otherwise compelling and enraging, a poignant dramatization of injustice.

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS OPENS ON FRIDAY, JULY 18

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