Bhubaneswar, April 24: The Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) has zeroed in on an Israeli and an Irish film for April in its monthly screening for members. The screening will take place on Saturday at Jayadev Bhavan auditorium.

The first screening of the evening will be the much acclaimed film of 2002, The Magdalene Sisters.

Written and directed by Scottish actor and director Peter Mullan, the film reflects the happenings in the 1960s in Ireland.

The film is based on the stories of three teenaged girls in the Magdalene Asylums (also known as Magdalene Laundries). The asylum is a home for 30,000 detained women who are labelled as “fallen” by their families or society for having children out of wedlock, for being promiscuous or just being orphans.

As repentance for their “sin”, the girls are forced to work long hours and endure endless physical humiliation and abuse at the hands of the head nun. The Magdalene Sisters premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it was awarded the top prize, the Golden Lion.

The two-hour film stars Anne-Marie Duff, Nora Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Geraldine McEwan and Eileen Walsh.

The FSB, known for highlighting world cinema, has tried to showcase the expertise of writer-director Peter Mullan who won the best actor award at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1998, for his performance in My Name Is Joe. They had screened British film Tyrannosaur last month in which Mullan had delivered an unforgettable performance.

The second screening of the evening is Broken Wings. Nir Bergman from Israel has both written the script and directed the film.

His debut feature film, originally titled Knafayim Shvurot, chronicles the struggle of a middle-class Israeli mother and her children as they try to survive after the abrupt death of the head of the family. Seventeen-year-old Maya (Maya Maron) spends much of her time helping raise her younger brother and sister, as mother Dafna (Orli Zilberschatz-Banai) slogs it out at a maternity hospital where she is employed.

“Both films are based on our unflinching hope for a better tomorrow, even in times of despair,” said Gurudatt Khuntia, a member of FSB.