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Sister Helen has already collected prizes at Sundance, Chicago and a slew of other film festivals for its harrowing portrayal of a dictatorial nun lording it over a the lives of the downtrodden residents of a halfway house in the roughest section of the South Bronx.
Helen Travis was herself a career alcoholic until her mid-50s when her husband and two sons died in a matter of months, all the victims of alcohol, drugs and crime.Travis saw the light, dried out and became a Benedictine nun. Her two-fisted, foul-mouthed, bottle-swigging life had ably equipped her to deal wrth a hostel full of ex-cons, winos and crack addicts. One of the toughest and most suspicious women to ever pull on a nun's habit, Sister Helen keeps her boys on a strict programme of cleaning chores, job seeking and clean living courtesy of her barrage of surprise urine tests.
Travis' treatment is rarely kind, usually ferocious and occasionally borders on the sadistic. She reduces one-time murderers to tears, threatens homelessness, swears like a trooper but appears to get results! Pray to your god that you never end up in her 'care'.