The Liberation
Friday, October 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Music Box Theatre
screening
It's the early 1980s: Rita Cooper (Carrie Coon) is a closed-off mother of two who works as a bank executive, unable to come to grips with her traumatic history. At the bank one day, she meets the radiant Ricki (Lily James) who invites Rita to join her women's self-empowerment group. Discovering a new-found freedom, Rita soon comes to depend on Ricki and leaves her family behind to join a cult-like commune in the forest. But when her daughters arrive to rescue her, Rita must choose between the new "spiritual" life she's found and the loved ones she's abandoned. Carrie Coon, the veteran Chicago Steppenwolf stage actor delivers one of the year's most extraordinary performances. Oscar-winning director Guy Nattiv crafts a compelling and highly complex psychological thriller, rooted in questions about leaders, beliefs, and identities that can lead to liberation or entrapment. Actor Carrie Coon in attendance for a post-film Q&A.