Gritty Scot

He got the idea for his latest film, The Magdalene Sisters , from a documentary he happened upon while channel surfing. If ever creative inspiration isn't so close at hand, writer-director Peter Mullan can look to his own bleak Glaswegian upbringing. The visuals would certainly be striking. Mullan's family led an outwardly prosperous life in a large pillared house that his mother instructed him and his seven siblings to tell people was owned, not rented. The lie fostered an illusion of affluence, but behind the façade, says Mullan, "we didn't even have any furniture. We were dirt poor." The family's emotional landscape...