In the best role of her career, Elizabeth Banks portrays Joy, a conservative housewife in 1968 Chicago, whose second pregnancy leads to a devastating diagnosis.
Following an all-male hospital board’s inexplicable decision to deny her a necessary procedure, Joy’s desperate search for a solution leads her to a clandestine group of women know as The Janes, who run an underground network helping women terminate unwanted pregnancies at a time in America when abortion is in most cases illegal.
Inspired by the compassion and commitment of this diverse group of women, Joy risks everything to provide other women with the reproductive options she herself had been denied.
This surprisingly entertaining drama about a very serious subject was nominated for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. For her role as Virginia, the leader of The Janes, Sigourney Weaver won Best Supporting Actress at the Beijing International Film Festival where the film was nominated for Best Film.
