Based on a real-life case, this film recounts the saga of Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis), an innocent Belfast native sentenced to prison for an IRA bombing after his British interrogators force him to sign a false confession. Imprisoned alongside his father, Giuseppe (Postlethwaite) — accused of abetting the crime — Gerry spends years trying to exonerate his family name with the help of lawyer Gareth Peirce (Thompson).

Jim Sheridan's searing political docudrama is a worthy modern successor to Carol Reed's "Odd Man Out." Day-Lewis and Postlethwaite give gut-wrenching turns as the angry son and his bewildered father, and Thompson lends fiery support as their dogged barrister. Nominated for seven Oscars, "Father" is an ode to human dignity and a hard-hitting tale of political injustice.