Stolen (2023) Poster

(II) (2023)

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8/10
Harrowing, honest account of Irelands recent past.
will_cotter4 November 2023
This is a great film, a necessary film. It's said that sunlight is the best disinfectant and this is evident in this brutal and raw account of the horrors suffered by women and children in "homes" run by the Catholic church and the government which were aware of and funded the incarceration for want of a better word of women who became pregnant outside marriage.

The film sheds light on how even though these places and institutions have been closed down, little has been done by way of punishment to the priests and nuns who carried out the forced adoptions from societies most vulnerable women.

It's as if they are hoping all of the individuals in the church die off so there can't be any prosecutions or others held to account.

This film keeps the story alive and keeps it from fading into the background.

It is essential viewing, especial for people in Ireland so that we realise what was done by an institution still operating in this country and still holding a level of respect they clearly do not deserve.
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10/10
Life in Ireland as a woman in Ireland
slydon1310 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This is a documentary film about the what life was like for women in Ireland for much of the 20th century.

For a woman to be pregnant and unmarried , was a crime and how she was impregnated wasn't considered. Women were disappeared into institutions and often never seen again, or not even talked about by family. Children were born and they were also disappeared. The death rate for illegitimate children was much higher than for children cared for outside these institutions.

Like many crimes against women, they have catastrophic effects on a woman's life, for the rest of her life. To be a rape victim, imprisoned and punished for somebody's crime, for him to go on to have a positive life in the community, while his victim is imprisoned without a finite term. Even if she escaped or was eventually released, she was shunned by the only community she knew and left without resources, vulnerable, unskilled and alone.

This documentary looks at what it was like and then in recent years, how the establishment have continued, even after 2020 to silence the women. The recent horror that after all their stories were gathered and then to be denied any form of justice, was evidence to the women of Ireland that the establishment still wants to whitewash away their sins.

There is poetry, social and political analysis and the true accounting by these women and their children.

This is the true face of catholic Ireland.
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10/10
A film not to be missed, shameful treatment of Irish mother's and babies
alfpraulins20 April 2024
Hard to watch without tears. Skillfully put together with emotional breaks of art and poetry. Real people real lives real heartbreak. How did a grandmother have to pay £100 to the church over 7 years for the release of her granddaughter, a good deposit on a house back then. How could drug companies use these children for vaccine trials without any permission. It shows the church and state were no different to slave traders and the experimental doctors in Nazi Germany. The question it leaves me with is, "We need to follow the money" . Money was a big factor in their treatment. Where did it go, and why aren't the church now compensating all those affected. Apologies are no where near enough, it's time the Catholic Church stumped up, they can hardly plead poverty. Actions not words are required. Sadly it feels like this documentary is the tip of an iceberg.
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