Fresh Air, Peter Mullen and Niki Caro

Scottish writer/director/actor Peter Mullan and writer/director Niki Caro on this edition of Fresh Air. Peter Mullan's new feature film The Magdalene Sisters is based on the real life laundries run by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order in Ireland which opened near the end of the 19th century. Girls that were considered wayward or unruly were sent there as punishment for their "sins" and forced to do labor under sweat-shop conditions. The last of the laundries was shut down in 1996. Niki Caro's new film is Whale Rider a re-telling of Maori legend in which a young girl must challenge her grandfather and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny. The Maoris are the native people of New Zealand. Whale Rider won the Audience awards at the Sundance, Toronto and Rotterdam Film Festivals. (Broadcast Date: August 12, 2003)