“Lion” is one of those films that will tear at your heart — so don’t forget a box of tissues. That’s right — a box. Grabbing a handful as you leave the house won't do it. This film is based on the true story of Saroo Brierly who got lost at the age of 5 and ended up in Kolkata over 900 miles from home. The screenplay is based on the novel, “A Long Way Home,” by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose.

Saroo lives with his single mother Kamla, little sister Kashiela, and big brother Guddu, in Ganesh Talai (that as a 5-year-old he pronounced ‘Gennestaly”), a neighborhood of Khandwa, India. Kamla and Guddu work collecting rocks for very little money. Saroo tags along with Guddu working during the day — sometimes hopping aboard a train to steal coal, which in the film they sell for two bags of milk for the family.

One night after Kamla has left for work, Guddu tells Saroo he is leaving to work and may be gone for up to one week. Saroo insists he be able to come with him. Guddu says Saroo is too little and not strong enough. Saroo demonstrates his strength by picking up a bicycle — and finally wears Guddu down. But, by the time the train pulls into the station, Saroo is sleepy. Guddu puts him on a bench at the station and tells his little brother to stay there until he gets back.

When Saroo wakes up he is alone in the station. He calls out for Guddu. Not getting a reply, Saroo sees a train and climbs aboard thinking Guddu might be on it, I guess. Next thing he knows the train is pulling out of the station and Saroo is trapped in the train car he boarded. The scene on the train as this little boy realizes what is happening is heartbreaking. Hearing him screaming for his brother. The fear and then sadness as he watches scenery he does not recognize fly by him through the train window. This scene, and others, will stay with you long after you leave The Harbor Theatre. Believe it. Saroo is a sweet boy who you, members of the audience, will just love. The actor portraying Saroo, Sunny Pawar, makes his film debut in “Lion” and he is perfection. (You can believe that too!)

Authorities at the train station in Kalkata let him out of the train and he runs. Saroo tries to ask people for help, but they speak Bengali, not Hindu. Your heart will be in your throat as you watch Saroo's narrow escape from men who enter the station and snatch up other lost or homeless children Saroo finds who sleep in the station. Saroo manages to evade the grasp of these dangerous-looking men and wanders.

After two months — yes, two months — alone, he is befriended by a woman, Noor, the first adult Saroo encounters who speaks Hindu as well. She takes him home, feeds him, bathes him and, before she sings him to sleep, tells him her friend, Rawa is coming tomorrow. Noor says Rawa is a good man who can help Saroo find his mother.

Rawa comes and tells Saroo he can take him to a wonderful place and then they will look for his mother. Rawa leaves Saroo and says to Noor in the doorway of the room Saroo is in, “He is just what they are looking for.” Saroo, like audiences, instinctively understands that Rawa is not taking him somewhere wonderful and will never help him look for Kamla.

Saroo ends up combing the large outdoor dump for priceless objects to sell. He comes across a large silver spoon and keeps it.

Several days later Saroo is sitting with other homeless kids and adults across the street from a restaurant where a young man is eating soup. Saroo begins to mimic the man he watches through the window. The man sees him, and the two interact through the mimicking until he comes to Saroo with some food and then takes him to the police. The police try to figure out where Saroo is from, with the man from the restaurant translating Saroo's Hindu, but there isn't a village called Gennestaly on the map of India. They ask Saroo what his mother's name is. He says “Mum.”

Saroo is taken to a government center for orphaned, lost and abandoned children. There are 80,000 kids in India alone who find themselves in such places — and worse. At this point in the film, crying, I got out of my seat and walked out — I just didn't know if I could continue watching it.

But I'm glad I eventually went back to my seat because Saroo meets with a Mrs. Snood who represents an adoption agency. Specifically, in his case, Sue and John Brierly (played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) of Tasmania, Australia. Saroo is well-loved by the couple who are as gentle and kind as their new young Indian son. After one year, the Brierleys adopt another boy from India, Mantoosh, but this boy has been damaged. He can become agitated and begin hitting himself in the head with his fists, banging his head against the wall … yet the Brierleys work through all of his issues with him. The couple doesn't know what happened to Mantoosh, they can only imagine the terrors; but they do know they care about him and will never return him to his old life.

When Saroo is 25 (Dev Fatel takes the role over from here), he is about to go off to a school to learn about the hotel business. He is also about to be flooded with memories of his youth that cannot be ignored. Yes, he always knew he'd been adopted. But he did not know what had happened to his family in India.

Saroo, the adult, finds himself gripped by the emotions that accompany the memories until he can think of nothing else but finding his mother. His brother. His sister. The journey to his past seems impossible. And it might have been … if not for technology and Google Earth … and the sheer will of this young man. The power of love, of family, of blood is a mighty potent force. And in 2013, that force brought him home.

The performances in this film — particularly by young Sunny Pawar, Kidman, and Patel — will have a profound impact on audiences. They are raw and passionately human. Who among us cannot relate to that? Namaste.

So, pack up that box of tissues and see “Lion” — worth every tear — at The Harbor Theatre in Boothbay Harbor. Screenings are at 7 p.m. beginning Friday, Feb. 24 and continuing Feb. 25, March 1 and 2 with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Feb. 26.