God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan

Lost your job? House in foreclosure? Wife/husband left? None of these things can come close to what happened to thousands of young boys in Sudan after the Muslim North started to eliminate the Christian South.

Darfur is not an imaginary place. It is where millions have been killed and raped and driven from their homes in the interests of oil and minerals.

Children see their parents killed before them and their whole families wiped out. They are really too young to understand what is happening, but it will come back to haunt them later.

Thousands of young boys from 5-13 marched a thousand miles, mostly without food and water to escape. The 13-year-olds had to lead and bury the dead. Imagine burying your friends at 13.

12,000 finally settled in a camp where they were basically just awaiting death. After 10 years, some of the boys got a chance to go the the U.S. This is their story. Imagine Africans transported to New York and Pennsylvania and other places without the basic knowledge of how to turn a light on and off, or how to use a shower. Imagine their astonishment on their first trip to a supermarket.

We follow three of these men as they settle in, get jobs to help their families and friends back in Africa and to repay the U.S. for their care until they got work visas. It is touching, funny at times, and a sad reminder that this war is still going on and nothing is being done.

Anytime you feel sad about your life, just pop this in the DVD player.

The future of the film depends on the initial attendance. I went on Saturday to the LA showing. This movie should be shown in every school. I took a 13 year old and she loved it. There are a few scenes that were hard to look at with starving African children...most of the staging was to give you a glimpse of what these boys went through. We can't comprehend and they didn't try to make the focus negative. This is an inspiring film about human dignity, human nature and people that know they are here for a reason. The lazy American High School student needs to wake up to this kind film and dream about making more of them. The film is beautifully and simply narrated by Nicole Kidman.

If nothing else, watching "God Grew Tired of Us" will make Westerners realize just how much they take for granted in their daily lives. For this is a wonderful and deeply moving documentary about three young men from Africa and their first, awe-inspiring encounter with the modern world.

John, Daniel and Panther are refugees who fled Sudan when war and genocide ravaged that once-beautiful country in the 1980's. They were part of a group of young boys who made an arduous and, for many, deadly trek from Southern Sudan to a refugee camp in Northern Kenya (those who survived the journey became known as "The Lost Boys of Sudan"). After living many years in substandard conditions at that site, 3,600 of the young men were given the opportunity to leave Kenya and start a new life in the United States. John, Daniel and Panther were three of those individuals.

As written and directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn (and narrated by Nicole Kidman), "God Grew Tired of Us" begins in despair, relating a heartbreaking tale of harrowing mass murder and deadly privation, and ends in hope, showing how one changed life can positively affect the lives of so many others the world over. For even though it vividly points out the bold line separating the haves from the have-nots in this world, the film also provides a great deal of optimism and humor, as the three young men explore the technological marvels of the strange new land in which they find themselves living: food that comes prepackaged from a freezer, staircases that move up and down seemingly of their own accord, hot and cold water that comes flowing out of a tap, light that appears at the command of a switch. One of the boys even admits to never having "seen" electricity before moving to America, and he worries over whether he will ever be able to master its use. But all is not roses and soft mattresses for the three men when they arrive in the U.S., for they must also work hard, establish themselves as members of their communities, and adjust to some of the "peculiarities" of American culture, such as a marked tendency towards suspicion and a lack of friendliness on the part of some of the people they meet. And, as with virtually all people who move to an alien yet economically advantaged society, they must cope not only with the loss of deeply-ingrained cultural traditions but a feeling of guilt for those they've left behind.

Yet, thanks to John, Daniel and Panther, "God Grew Tired of Us" becomes much more than a mere curiosity, a mere fish-out-of-water tale for the amusement of the Western elite. Through lengthy interviews, the three men provide a rich and thoughtful commentary on their lives, their experiences, their values, their goals and their aspirations. And though they struggle mightily with the psychic scars left by the traumas of their past, through their own inner strength and commitment - and never a hint of self-pity - they not only persevere to go on and make something of their own lives, but they are able to turn their personal tragedy into a force for Good, inspiring others in their neighborhoods to join them in raising America's consciousness about the atrocities still occurring in that corner of the globe. And when, after three years in America, two of them are already making plans to go back to their homeland in the hope of bringing positive change to the region, we come to understand just how powerful a force commitment and caring can be in this world.

After immersing yourself in "God Grew Tired of Us," you may never look at your own life - or the place you occupy in the world - in quite the same way again.

By all means, don't miss this one.

This is a documentary that is of a rare type, yet one that i wish there was more of. It is rare because it is real. There isn't a script, no plot. The camera follows the characters and not the other way around.

This movie is about a group of Sudanese refugees granted asylum into the USA after wandering around Africa for years having been displaced by the wars in the 1990s that affected Sudan.

I am sure some will say that we have all seen this before.. people in dire situations, starving people, famine.. Yes we have, but what we haven't seen enough about is how these people, the few given a chance at a normal life deal with the adjustment and their new home.

This is a movie about Sudanese refugees yet it unmistakably makes you wonder about yourself and your own country. Through their eyes we are given a different perspective about us, perhaps a perspective that we so cannot see from our own point of view. The movie highlights the undeniable workaholic and isolationist American culture that is remotely not as welcoming as we would all like to claim. As the movie progresses we see their lives change, them trying to fit in, struggling with social norms (put your thinking caps on for this part of the movie) and generally trying to make it in the big capitalist state that we are. It isn't easy, but is it worth it? What these people have to give up makes you think of what we have given up and not even realize it or deem it important, yet for someone who comes from a different culture, the fragmented society is not a culture shock, it's lack of culture.

It doesn't matter if one agrees with their views on our weird lifestyle. What matters is that this is a beautiful documentary about struggle, both in the old life and the new. It is amazing to me, yet not foreign, how they are eventually forced to drop out of school and work menial jobs to make ends meet and try to help any people back home they can. Then comes the realization that a man can only do so much..

As time goes we see them make changes (generally improve) to their lives, get involved with activities, mend with the local culture. As we see the changes taking place it is hard not to understand the people and that is one of the high points of this movie. The information isn't forced to you but you warm up to is by listening what the boys have to say about their experiences and their lives.

A highly recommended real life documentary that is worth checking out, particularly if you like something different. There are also a few lines (can't miss them) that will make you chuckle because they are the same things that every American says often.

"The Lost Boys of Sudan": Documentary. Imagine you're a four year old boy. Countrymen, who look just like your very own Father, come into your town, and kill all the men and older boys, rape and kill all the women and girls, including your Mother and Sisters. You were in the fields, tending the goats, and saw it all. Now you – a four year old boy – are being hunted by these countrymen. You gather with other little boys, and set out barefoot, running and walking the wild countryside – hiding during the day, hiking only under the cover of night – when the lions come out – who stalk and kill many of your group. Imagine you somehow survive, and find yourself living in refugee camps run by Americans. You are there the next ten years. This is your home. The other boys, now men, are your Family. One day, YOU are offered a free trip to America – to better your life, make money, and send some of it home to help your surviving family and friends. Take the offer! You grew up in a mud hut on the Sudanese Plain, and suddenly you are welcomed/dropped into America. "Toto, we're not in Sudan anymore." This is a frightening, funny, interesting, frustrating, VERY sad look at Life with Nothing but Struggle. Their daily observations and realizations about this culture make you wince. Often.