Vatican attacks Magdalene Sisters movie

Vatican Radio has denounced The Magdalene Sisters being awarded the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

It claimed the movie by Scottish director Peter Mullan is "clearly false" and attacked the festival's jury for awarding the prize.

It is the second attack on the film, which was also criticised by a Vatican newspaper.

The movie tells the story of one of the Magdalene convents, which were run by nuns for women who had babies outside wedlock.

The movie describes young women being imprisoned and tormented for often absurd and cruel reasons, such as having been raped.

Mullan's film describes the mistreatment of four women in one convent in the 1960s. The last Magdalene convent in Ireland closed in 1996.

Mullan has admitted being influenced by his own upbringing as a Catholic in the west of Scotland. He said he made the film "because I want people to know what went on".

Vatican Radio said the director "likens the Catholic Church to the Taliban". It then went on to say: "Awarding top honours to 'Magdalene' was the most offensive and pathetic page written by the jury."

The seven-member international jury was headed by Chinese actress Gong Li, and also included Easy Rider cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, French writer-director Jacques Audiard, actress Francesca Neri, producer Ulrich Felsberg and Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu.

Vatican Radio also criticised film critics at the festival for giving the movie strong reviews. "A coalition of so-called critics - have put their act together to hype up a clearly false movie," it said.