The Magdalene Laundries are a peculiarly twisted Irish Catholic institution; run by nuns they provide a form of incarceration for fallen young women, whose heinous crimes range from being raped to flirting with boys. Margaret, Bernadette and Rose are three new inmates about to experience first hand woman's inhumanity to woman as they are humiliated, degraded, abused and worked to the bone, but despite the grimness of their world the three girls find solace and even humour in the company of each find out more...

"Josephine Decker has created a new style of thriller that employs allegory, incorporates touches of David Lynch as well as Magritte -esque imagery. Decker's setting of a remote farm feels like a metaphor for what turns out to be hell. The raw and emotional (and yes, sometimes funny) dialog tells a story that can seem familiar at points but really is meant to keep you guessing and off balance. I really enjoyed how the undertones of this film came to life through her very deft contrast of the find out more...

Varanasi, India, 1938; 7-year-old Chuyia's husband has died and she is forced to live as a virtual prisoner, as a future cash cow for the mainly elderly inhabitats, in a widows' ashram. Her main ally, beautiful and still young Kalyani, is flirting with handsome Brahmin's son, and Mahatma Gandhi follower, Narayan, but marriage for a widow is against the arcane laws of the Hindu religion. Plausible but with an uncomfortable mixture of Bollywood melodrama and social realism. find out more...

Against a backdrop of the 1953 Anglo-American plot to overthrow democracy in Iran and reduce it to an autocratic police state, four women meet in a beautiful orchard to discuss life. They are the wife of a right-wing general, a prostitute, a compliant woman eager to wear the chador and marry and, the focal point of the movie, a liberal, politically aware 30-year-old with a devout Muslim brother.
Adapted from the book by Shahrnush Parsipur there is a touch of magical realism to 'Women Wit find out more...