FILM

PHILOMENA

  • PRODUCTION: USA 2013
  • DIRECTOR: Stephen Frears
  • STARRING: Judi Dench (Philomena Lee), Steve Coogan (Martin Sixsmith), Sean Mahon (Michael, Philomena's son), Mare Winningham (Mary), Peter Hermann (Pete), Kate Fleetwood (young Sister Hildegarde)
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SYNOPSIS

The daughter of Philomena Lee asks the journalist Martin Sixsmith to write a story about her mother, who had to abandon her son Anthony fifty years before. Martin meets Philomena and decides to investigate her case.
In 1951, Philomena became pregnant and was sent to Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in Ireland. After giving birth, the nuns gave her son up for adoption. She kept her lost son a secret from her family for nearly fifty years.
Martin and Philomena begin their search at the convent but the nuns say that the adoption documents were destroyed in a fire.
At a pub, the locals tell Martin that the convent burnt the records deliberately, and that most of the children were sold for £1,000 each to rich Americans.
Martin goes to the United States and invites Philomena to accompany him there.
They discover that Anthony was renamed Michael A. Hess. They also learn that he had died eight years earlier.
Philomena decides to meet people who knew Michael and learn more about him. She discovers that Michael was gay and died of AIDS. She meets his sister Mary, who was adopted at the same time from the convent.
Pete, who was Michael's partner, agrees to talk to Philomena. He explains that Michael had thought about his birth mother all his life, and had returned to Ireland to try to find her but the nuns had told Michael that she had abandoned him and that they had lost contact with her.
Pete also reveals that Michael was buried in the convent’s cemetery.
Philomena and Martin go to the convent to see where Michael’s grave is. Sister Hildegarde, who worked at the convent when Anthony was adopted, refuses to answer, saying that losing her son was Philomena’s punishment for her sin.
Martin tells Philomena he has chosen not to publish the story, but Philomena tells him to publish it anyway.