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Directed by Ana Rocha de Sousa

ACTOR-turned-filmmaker Ana Rocha de Sousa shines a much-needed light on the practice of forced adoption in Britain in her powerful debut feature about an immigrant Portuguese couple’s tireless battle against the law to keep their three children.

Living on the outskirts of London, cleaner Bela (Lucia Moniz from Love Actually) and her husband — who’s on a zero-hours contract — Jota (Ruben Garcia) are struggling to make ends meet when their kids are taken away by social workers, who fear their seven-year-old deaf daughter Lu (Maisie Sly, star of the Oscar-winning short The Silent Child) is being physically abused by her parents.

The couple are allowed one hour of supervised visits at a time, in which they must all speak in English and not use sign language.

When Bela signs with Lu to find out how she is — her hearing aid being broken — an officious social worker ends the meeting by yanking Bela’s 11-month-old baby from her arms.

They are warned they have to follow the rules if they want to continue to see their children and they are forbidden from talking to the media.

Their anguish shows no bounds when they later learn that baby Jessy (Lola Weeks) is being officially adopted without their consent, which they are powerless to stop.

A family has also been found for their 12-year-old son Diego (James Felner), who refuses to go.

The characters may be fictional, but their experiences are based on those undergone by real people and it is a heart-wrenching story.

Families caught in the poverty trap are being torn apart by a heartless and inflexible system in which they face forced adoptions without chance of appeal — all behind closed doors.

It is a terribly moving and agonising drama brought home by an astounding performance by Sly — profoundly deaf herself — and a heart-rending turn by Moniz as her mother, alongside Sophia Myles as a former social worker turned rogue agent who helps them.

It all ends on a shocking note, but Rocha’s thought-provoking film should be the catalyst for a nationwide conversation about this horrendous practice.

In cinemas