FILM OF THE WEEK: Testimony - Reviewed by Roe McDermott

Aoife Kelleher’s Testimony is a profound, moving and meticulously crafted documentary that stands as one of the most important Irish films in recent years. Expanding on threads first encountered while making One Million Dubliners, Kelleher returns to the unhealed wounds of the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes with a blend of compassion, clarity and moral force. What emerges is not just a recounting of historic wrongs but a celebration of courage and survivors who refuse silence, and of the small group of volunteers who helped push Ireland toward truth.

The film opens with the haunting legacy of the High Park Magdalene Laundry graves, where women who were exploited in life and mishandled in death, had their remains exhumed, cremated, misidentified. It is an image that lingers long after the credits roll, grounding the film in the stark reality of how disposable these women were deemed. Yet Testimony refuses to reduce them to passive victims. Instead, it amplifies their agency and the tireless advocacy of those who stood with them.

Kelleher brings viewers into the intimate kitchen-table meetings of Justice for Magdalenes Research, where, long before national inquiries gained momentum, volunteers were doing the painstaking work of a truth commission - legal research, UN submissions, survivor support, and putting unrelenting pressure on a reluctant State. The film’s spine lies in this grassroots organising, and its heart in the women whose bravery made it all possible.

Among the most affecting stories is that of Madeleine Marvier, who lost her infant son William in Bessborough. Her decision to share her experience publicly, and her emotional recounting of how her son was taken from her before he died and how she was lied to about where he was buried, is one of the film’s most emotional moments. Her search for William, and the revelation of his unmarked burial place, is told with such respect for her and unflinching awareness of this deep cruelty that it becomes impossible not to feel the weight of her loss. Her words, “You want to know where your child is buried. He needs that. He’s been on his own all this time” will echo through my heart for a very long time. Other accounts are also deeply powerful, including Claire McGettrick’s stark reflection on identity erasure through forced adoption, and Angela Fahy’s harrowing years of unpaid labour, humiliation and eventual escape from a Magdalene Laundry where she was placed as a young teen.

What Testimony does so effectively is expose not only personal trauma, but the structural forces that enabled it: the shame, coercion and State complicity that returned escaping women to institutions where they had committed no crime. Archival moments, such as Michael O’Brien’s unforgettable appearance on Questions & Answers, serve as moral touchstones - raw reminders of how long survivors fought to be heard and the importance of testimony.

Kelleher also situates the film in a broader international context, showing how global scrutiny often drove the limited responses Ireland did make. Her use of title cards, listing the many State and religious bodies that declined to participate, underscores how much truth remains obstructed.

Kelleher’s achievement lies in giving survivors back their stories - and giving the public a chance, finally, to hear them. Testimony is not only essential viewing; it is a work of lasting significance and a beacon for truth, justice and collective memory.

• Watch the trailer below: