During the Berlin Film Festival press conference for his newest movie SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, Cillian Murphy reflected on the “collective trauma” of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Based on the book of the same name by Claire Keegan, the film focuses on the horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform ‘fallen young women. The story is told through the eyes of Murphy’s devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong, who during Christmas 1985 discovers some “startling secrets” kept by his local convent.