Magdalene Sisters wins top film award

PETER MULLAN’S The Magdalene Sisters won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion yesterday.

The movie, denounced by the Vatican newspaper, tells the true story of four supposedly promiscuous girls interned in the Magdalene Asylums in the 1960s, forced to work as virtual slaves in laundries and abused by the Sisters of Mercy.

“This is a great honour,” said the Scottish director, who wore a deep blue kilt and purple velvet jacket as he accepted the golden trophy for his second feature.