He shares with us the wonders of the home where they searched for his family (never knowing how far he had traveled and how long he survived on the streets) and finally made him available for adoption by an Australian couple. We journey with him through his traumatic loss and separation from his family and hometown, marvel with him as a rural five-year old stays alive and relatively unharmed on the streets of Calcutta, and travel to the police station with a helpful teenager, then a large group housing center. Lion then introduces Saroo to us and takes us through all his precious childhood memories of India and his family. The book begins with a teaser prologue which gives it away – near the empty shell of his old home, he finds somebody who says he’ll take Saroo to his mother. Reading the blurb, it dealt with international adoption which is a topic of interest to me. There was a brown person on the cover, so I bought it knowing nothing about the book. This was, once again, a fully random Target pick. But is any of his family still there? Lion (previously A Long Way Home) by Saroo Brierley. Twenty-five years after he got lost, he came home again. Some didn’t believe him, others tried to take advantage of him, but none were able to find his family based on his five-year old recollections.Īs an adult with the help of Google Earth, he began an obsessive search to find his home town. Along the way, he told many people his story. Six emotional months later, he was adopted into an Australian family, the Brierleys. NOTE: Previously published under the title A Long Way Home.īorn into an impoverished but loving family in rural India, Saroo accompanied his brother to a nearby train station and got lost, ending up asleep on a train which took him to Calcutta.
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New American Library imprint, Penguin Random House, 2013. If you're in the mood for a heart wrenching drama with an uplifting ending, go watch this one once its out! The lead cast as well as supporting members have all done a wonderful job.Lion by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose.
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#Lion a long way home movie
I kid you not, I could hear the whole theatre crying during several parts of the movie and most people had tissues in their hands. Do children every fully recover from traumatic childhood experiences? Does one forget their original family if they never see them again after the age of 5? As an adopted child do you ever completely feel like you fit into your new life? What is the bond with your adoptive parents like? The film touches upon all these themes while primarily being about the physical and emotional journey of a young man finding his way back home with very few clues to work with.
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The movie explores some great themes: What happens to lost children in developing countries? How do poor, illiterate citizens of a country go about finding their lost children.who helps them? What are the dangers faced by these lost children? Why do certain people choose to adopt? How do adopted children adapt to their surroundings? Especially when they're transplanted so many miles away from home where they do not even speak the language. It would be difficult to watch any child go through what he did and the fact that he was absolutely adorable looking made it even harder.
Special shoutout to the young actor who played little Saroo. He managed to make you feel the character's pain just by the way he looked at a jalebi (indian sweet that his brother and him fantasized about back in India). There wasn't a single scene in the movie which doesn't suck you in. The fact that one boy survived this situation and went on to tell his story is very inspiring and this fantastic film did justice to showing it on screen. They either end up dead or in the hands of heartless people who use children for various illegal / unethical operations. This happens there everyday.and most children never find their way back. I mean just the thought of a 5 year old separated from his family for 25 years is bad enough, add in the fact that he was lost in India, a country of over a billion people and was the child of an uneducated poor single mother and you are looking at a very stressful situation. I saw the trailer a few days before the screening and I have to admit the trailer alone made me a little emotional.