PHILOMENA Special Screenings

During the 1950s, Philomena Lee conceived a baby boy out of wedlock in a conservative Irish Catholic community. Her father placed Philomena in a convent, where her child was taken from her and sent away to the U.S. for adoption. Following church policy, she was forced to sign a contract that prevented any inquiry into her son’s whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets BBC reporter Martin Sixsmith, with whom she decides to track down her long-lost son. Based on Sixsmith’s 2009 investigative book, “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee,” director Stephen Frear’s PHILOMENA pairs Judi Dench and Steve Coogan to dramatize an emotional journey through three countries in search of lost love and forgiveness.