IT IS an amazing story of determination against impossible odds.

After tagging along with his older brother to the train station near their central Indian village, five-year-old Saroo accidentally fell asleep on an empty carriage.

When he woke up, the train had already taken him to a foreign landscape.

He would eventually make his way off the carriage in the bustling metropolis of Calcutta where he dodged the many dangers of the streets to eventually end up in an orphanage which matched him with a Tasmanian couple looking to adopt.

He grew up in Hobart, and soon forgot his native language. But he never forgot his Indian family and with the advent of Google Earth he began tracing every train line out of Calcutta in the hope of finding the landmarks he remembered.

I really wasn't prepared for the emotional response I had to this film.

Lion, the feature film debut by Australian director Garth Davis, chronicles young Saroo's disappearance, his adoption and the years of his online search for his birth family.

The film's final scenes, when Saroo finally reunites with his mother Kamla, are understated yet powerful.

HEARTSTRING TUGGER

WHAT: Lion

WHERE: Proserpine Entertainment Centre

WHEN: March 9, 6pm, March 10, 7pm, March 11, 3pm, March 12, 2pm, March 13, 10am

COST: Adults $13, pens/conc $12, child $10

TICKETS: 4945 2312