God Grew Tired of Us

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.

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.

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.

Recently saw a screening of the film. Afterward had the pleasure of meeting and listening to John Dau speak. This film should be shown on TV as well, to enlighten, educate the UNITED STATES, because we can be very ignorant about our knowledge of the outside world.

These young boys and men, proved to be so endearing, very bright, hard working people. When one of them commented about someone asking about them living in the forest...he was lovely with his response. For him it was just common sense "No you can not live in the forest, it's impossible" It made me think of what Oprah is currently doing with her school for girls. These young people want the education for the em-betterment of their families and countries. These Lost Boys came here and even though they're putting Ritz Crackers in a coffeemaker w/milk, somehow managed to receive their education (Masters, B.A.).

We as a nation, need to really take a serious look at ourselves...and perhaps this film.

BRAVO!

Just saw this at Sundance. Truly, an excellent, humane look at immigrant/refugee assimilation in the United States. The parts where the boys discover electricity, cars, and supermarkets are funny as hell. The parts where the boys question whether people are better off in the U.S. or Africa are poignant and revealing of our luxuries and ignorance.

The film briefly covers the history of the mid-80s civil war in Sudan, and the subsequent exodus of young Sudanese men and boys into a refuge camp in Kenya. It focuses on the first four years of the lucky few "lost boys" who are offered refuge in the U.S.

By far, my favorite part, is the film's effective portrayal of these young men as articulate, intelligent beings. It's too easy for us to create a stereotypical picture of Africa in our minds. This film blows all of my previous conceptions away.

Immediately after seeing this at Sundance, someone wrote a $25,000 check to help one of the main character's projects. If I had the money, I would have done the same.