Testimony Review – A devastating expose of the brutal Irish Magdalene Church sinks | film

AAt least 10,000 women and girls were imprisoned in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, forced to work without pay and subjected to cruelty and suffering. Narrated by Imelda Staunton, this documentary tells the story of the campaign to hold the Irish government to account for its role in laundries, mother and baby homes and industrial schools for children. One of the key figures in that campaign is Maeve O’Rourke, the impressive young Irish human rights lawyer whose master’s thesis at Harvard Law School was a major legal submission in the legal struggle for justice.

O’Rourke had plans to work in international human rights law until she watched a survivor speak in a debate on Irish television. We see this footage here of Michael O’Brien, the former mayor and survivor of rape and torture at the hands of boarding school priests, attacking a government minister in extreme anger, and his shock. It takes your breath away. This comprehensive documentary hears from activists, historians and survivors – including Philomena Lee, who was forced to give up her son, who was trafficked and sold to wealthy Americans. Lee was later portrayed on screen by Judi Dench.

The scale of the scandal is sometimes overwhelming. A mass grave was found at St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home near Tuam in Galway – the bodies of 796 babies and children dumped in a septic tank. The malevolence of abusers is a recurring theme, such as a nun throwing baby clothes at a young mother, who had sewn them for her baby – and which had been taken from her for adoption only minutes before. The expression of remorse by religious organizations is best described as carefully crafted. Legally, they are untouchable. But the film ends happily, with the survivors being treated to a lunch in Dublin, where they are feted like celebrities by crowds outside cheering, waving signs, and celebrating her bravery; It left me in floods of tears.

● Testimony is in UK cinemas from 21 November.