Small Things Like These. The tragedy of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, in 1985

Small Things Like These (opening film of the 2024 Berlin Film Festival) is based on the novel of the same name by Claire Keegan and deals with the painful story of the Magdalene Laundries, which were Irish religious institutions run by nuns where, until 1996, girls considered “immoral” were locked away. However, Keegan, and consequently the screenwriter Enda Walsh, decide not to tell the story through the experiences of the victim (as many other films and TV series on the same topic have done) but rather through the eyes of a family man, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant played by the charismatic, Cillian Murphy.

The film is set in 1985, and Bill is making his coal deliveries, one of which is destined for the convent of the nuns. He enters the building to deliver the invoice and here he meets a girl who desperately asks him to take her away from there. From this moment on, Bill begins to experience inner turmoil, and asks what is happening inside? Are they just village rumors? However, it will be during his last delivery before Christmas that Bill will find, in the coal shed, the same terrified and cold girl. From that moment on, he realizes that within the Convent of the Good Shepherd, a very dramatic reality is hidden. What to do? Challenge the code of silence that prevails in the village and rebel against the Catholic Church (which is itself protected by the Irish state), with all the economic and family consequences, or turn a blind eye and look the other way?

In addition to Cillian Murphy, the cast chosen by Tim Mielants also features the extraordinary Emily Watson in the role of the strict and powerful Sister Mary, the mother superior who will try, by all means, to dissuade Bill from his attempt to help the young women escape from the convent.

Small Things Like These is a film that delves into the depths of our daily choices, which seem small in the face of the evil and horrors we see and know.

Murphy returns to his beloved Ireland to try to heal a wound that is still open on the island, and delivers a performance with a delicate, introspective style, which is never aggressive. In the book, Claire Keegan writes, “Was it possible to carry on for years, decades, an entire life, without ever having the courage to go against things...?”

The film, thanks to its apparent simplicity, manages to convey a universal message and reveal a devastating relevance, almost emphasizing that sometimes a courageous act can change our existence and that of others, starting from small things.

by Patrizia Rossi
National Delegate of the Salesian Youth Cinemas and Socio-Cultural Circles