This is the tale through the perspective of three young women who find themselves excommunicated to the confines of this ghastly convent for their mortal sins.  Sins that range from being raped, flirting, and having a child out of wedlock.  We see the harshness and bigotry inherent in the system, especially in matters of the female species.  These girls are literally wrongfully imprisoned.  They are doomed to spend their lives "repenting" among the holy sisters.  This repentance involves laundry, cleaning, and non communication.  Any intolerances are subject to beatings.  They find themselves in a house of the lord, where wholly unholy acts reign supreme.  Priests sexually abuse the girls, the sisters beat and abuse them, instead of embracing them in the ways taught in the bible they recite at their meals.  Girls who challenge the authority and sanctity are ridiculed, beaten, and/or shipped of to an asylum.  There is no hope for these women barring a miracle, as many are doomed to die in the convent, either as prisoner or nun.

   This film is a beautifully ugly film.  I think I've hit on the ugliness, so let's look at the beauty.  Namely the imagery, while confined, takes advantage of the setting and visuals whenever it gets the chance.  The music is excellent, moody, and the perfect companion piece to the film.  A truly excellent score.  But the true beauty of this film is the acting.  Every single role is a hit.  The girls display wonderful range of inner suffering, shame, and despair, as well as allowing glimpses of hope, joy, and love to come through.  The sisters command respect, and dominate, and yet are able to be compassionate and coy at times.  While the leads (though, really this is an ensemble piece) are great, Eileen Walsh by far stands out above and beyond in the role of Crispina, a woman committed for child out of wedlock.  She is compassionate, loving, pained, joyous and a traumatic.  She ranges unbelievably from moment to moment, and by far carries much of the weight of the film.

  This film at times can be a little heavy handed, a bit skewed and over the top and over dramatic, but it has heart.  It probably goes a bit long on the runtime, then hurries through an ending, but there is too much that is good in this film to ignore.  8/10