With China’s burgeoning film market and box office riches, it’s no surprise that Love and Lost has found its way to a North American release. Inspired by true events, the movie, which features Hong Kong star Andy Lau, tells the story of a father’s years-long quest to find his long-lost son after a suspected child abduction.

China Lion has picked up the rights to distribute Love and Lost in both North America and Australia. The movie was written and directed by novelist Peng Sanyuan and will follow Lei (played by Andy Lau) through the Hubei province of China, along a fourteen-year quest to find his son, who went missing at the age of two. Leading man Lau may be familiar to American audiences, as he appeared in 2004’s House of Flying Daggers, as well the 1999 Hong Kong action hit Infernal Affairs, which was the basis for the 2006 Academy Award-winning remake The Departed starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson.

The story was inspired by a 2010 Hubei case that featured the return of the abducted child after a three-year search, when the child was recognized by a university student who saw a post on the Chinese microblogging website Sina Weibo. This movie will be Sanyuan’s directorial debut, when before he made his living as a screenwriter and novelist.

The film is set to open on March 20 in the U.S. – the same weekend as the release in China – so audiences on opposite ends of the world will experience it together in real time.