Orphans

Director: Peter Mullan

Year: 2010

'If you want a Ned, I'll give you a fu*king Ned!'<br /> <br /> Glasgow, 1973. On the brink of adolescence, young John McGill's about to start secondary school. He's a bright boy, a sensitive boy, eager to learn, but the cards are stacked high against him. The McGill family's dirt poor, his hated father's a drunken bully. His teachers - punishing John for the 'sins' of his older brother Benny - are down on him from the start. John's on his own.<br /> <br /> And then there's the gangs. The Neds. Non-Educated Delinquents. The bad boys with weapons and attitude: cheap drugs, glam rock, fumbling sex, the violence and the camaraderie of the streets. Local monsters. Local heroes. Benny's fearsome reputation buys John protection, and then a way in. Scared, resentful, full of rage, John makes his decision. If no one else will give him a chance: fu*k them.<br /> <br /> John takes to the savage life of the streets with a vengeance. But as his rage and frustration spin him further and further out of control, he is left facing a blank wall. No future. With one extraordinary chance of redemption.

Director: Peter Mullan

Year: 2002

The Magdalene Asylums in Ireland were run by the Sisters of Mercy on behalf of the Catholic Church. Young girls were sent there by families or orphanages and once there, were imprisoned and sent to work in the laundries where they could atone for their sins. Their sins varied from being unmarried mothers to being too pretty, too ugly, simple minded, too clever or being a victim of rape and talking about it. And for their sins they worked 364 days a year unpaid, they were half starved, beaten, humiliated, raped, their children forcibly removed from them. Their sentence was indefinite. Thousands of women lived and died there. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed in 1996, five years ago.<br /> <br /> This film is from the point of view of four of these young women in the 1960s, an era mistakenly seen by some as a time of unchallenged female liberation. These young Catholic women find themselves in an almost medieval nightmare whilst the outside world tacitly (or in some cases actively) supports a theocratic state. It looks at how their personalities develop for better and for worse in an environment controlled and dominated by celibate women, servants of God, Brides of Christ. In their own ways the girls refuse to be beaten, but what victory is there if they remain imprisoned as little more than slaves? One gets out in a heartbreakingly banal fashion, one is imprisoned in a mental asylum, two finally rebel, run away, escape.<br /> <br /> It is a fictional film that unfortunately happens to be true.

Director: Akporé Uzoh

Year: 2025

The aftermath of a sexual assault (rape). Exploring the deep-felt consequences for all involved. At its heart an epic story of a couple's fight for the survival of their love.