Harrowing true story behind Elliott Page baby kidnap film soon leaving Netflix forever

Netflix subscribers have just days left to watch a lesser-known Elliott Page film before it disappears from the platform, and its backstory is stranger than most people realize.

Tallulah, the 2016 dramedy starring Elliott Page and Allison Janney, is leaving Netflix on July 29.

The film follows a drifter named Tallulah (Page) who rescues a baby from their neglectful mother. Tallulah then convinces their ex-boyfriend's mom, played by Janney, that the child is actually Tallulah's.

While the specific plot and characters were invented, Tallulah is rooted in a genuinely true, and deeply unsettling, moment from director Sian Heder's own life.

The film is based on director Sian Heder's 2006 short film Mother, which was inspired by her own experiences. (Netflix)

Is Tallulah based on a true story?

Heder based the film on her own 2006 short, Mother, which drew directly from an experience she had while working as an on-call babysitter for hotel guests after first moving to Los Angeles to break into show business.

The job was meant to be a simple way to pay the bills, but one particular night changed how she saw parenthood entirely, she told The Frame.

Heder was assigned to look after a child whose wealthy mother had checked into the hotel purely to have an affair.

The mother was intoxicated and, according to Heder, had no real ability to care for her own child. Heder felt she had to intervene and reported the situation to hotel staff, but was told nothing could be done since no actual abuse had occurred.

"I actually cried on the way home," Heder said. "And then I sat down immediately and wrote this scene... [that] became the short. I was just, 'I have to write that down.' That was one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me. I just knew there was something to it. So I shot a short."

That short eventually grew into a full feature. Heder combined the emotional core of Mother with a separate idea she had been developing about a poor young woman living out of a van, according to the LA Times. The resulting screenplay was picked up by Route One Entertainment and Blue Ocean Entertainment, with Page and Janney signing on to star in 2015.

In Mother, an impoverished girl finds herself unexpectedly babysitting the toddler of a hotel guest, and she experiences a strong need to save the child from its irresponsible mother. (Netflix)

The finished film pushes the original premise further than Heder's short ever did, adding in the entire storyline involving Janney's character being deceived into believing she is caring for her own grandchild.

At its heart, though, Tallulah still wrestles with the same question that started it all for Heder: what happens to children who fall through the cracks of neglect, and who is responsible for stepping in when the system won't.

Page and Janney had already worked together on Juno and Touchy Feely before reuniting for Tallulah, which premiered at Sundance in January 2016 before landing on Netflix.