God Grew Tired of Us (2006)

Touches You

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

Enlightening, heartbreaking, inspiring: don't miss this film. As an American it opened my eyes to our selfishness, our material world, and how it clashes with other cultures. It made me question why some people are born into privilege, while others suffer unimaginable atrocities in their lives. It made me appreciate how damn lucky I am. The tale of survival of these boys is a direct view into a harsh reality that continues today - one that most Americans are oblivious of, one that deserves attention and action. I absolutely fell in love with these Sudanese boys. Their love, their humor, their culture - it was all fascinating. If only people in our country would show the solidarity that these brothers have for each other - what a wonderful world it would be. I'm showing this film to my high school class of students who are learning English as a Second Language (among them I have some Africans, but not from the Sudan). It is going to provide a lot of food for thought!

This is a heart-wrenching, beautifully filmed documentary about the true story of "the lost boys" of Sudan. I saw it first at Sundance film festival in 2006 and have never forgotten the images. One of the most powerful films I've ever seen - the viewer will never again complain about "problems" in their life after witnessing the bravery and shining life condition of these incredible young men. I wish this had gotten wide release as it deserved, but alas it is available on DVD which is a blessing. The cinematography is gorgeous, especially in the African shots, and the raw emotion will live with you forever.

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.

Like college students after exam grades have been posted, boys in the U.N. refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, gather around a wooden board to look for their names on a stapled piece of paper. Finding them means a chance for a new life. Not finding their name means more waiting and hoping. Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker's documentary God Grew Tired of Us chronicles the odyssey of members of the Dinka tribe of Sudan who emigrate to America after years of hardship in a refugee camp in Kenya, some of the survivors of the people that have come to be known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. They are part of what remains of 27,000 Sudanese boys who escaped from their civil-war ravaged country in 1983 and walked more than one thousand miles over a period of five years, first to Ethiopia and then to Kenya in search of relief from government oppression and civil war.The subject matter may sound depressing, but in the hands of Quinn and his team who spent more than four years in the project, the result leaves us feeling good about humanity. Though there is little historical background about the civil war or its causes and only a few words about how the Muslims in the north attacked the Christians in the south and threatened to kill or maim all underage boys, the film is not about the past but about the future. Produced by Brad Pitt and narrated by Nicole Kidman, God Grew Tired of Us centers around three boys who were given the opportunity to come to the U.S. after years of struggle for survival.The boys are John Bul Dau, Panther Bior, and Daniel Abul Pach, all handsome, articulate, and highly motivated. Panther and Daniel end up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and John goes to Syracuse, New York, two of twenty-three states who accept the Sudanese Lost Boys. We get a real sense of what they are up against the minute we see them boarding a plane for the first time. No one bothers to tell them that butter is a spread and not to be eaten whole. When shown their new apartments in their new environment, they are amazed that they each can sleep in a single bed with a mattress and are wide-eyed when shown how to use electricity, garbage, and toilet facilities.The first trip to the supermarket is another perplexing occasion. When shown a donut covered with sprinkles, one justifiably asks whether or not this is food. They are told that in the West, they don't have to cook potatoes but can eat them out of a paper bag labeled as chips but they are not told that it contains little but empty calories without a hint of nutrition. The film flies by in less than an hour and a half and we only scratch the surface of the problems that arise during their first year in their new country but their growing sense of loneliness and cultural isolation and their economic exploitation is not glossed over and we often wonder if perhaps coming to America was not the best idea.John has to get up at 4AM to be driven to a factory job one hour away and to wait for two hours in the cold before the factory even opens. Others work two or three jobs, lamenting the fact that they never can see their friends. They wonder aloud how a society can function when everyone lives in fear of their neighbor, but no answers are forthcoming. What is astonishing is their mental toughness in pursuit of their goals and the film shows their efforts to attend schools, build a support community for other Lost Boys in the States, and make enough money to visit or provide help for their families and friends in Africa.God Grew Tired of Us is a paean to the human spirit that avoids sentimentality and brings us closer to what is truly important in life: closeness to family, knowing who we are, remembering where we came from, and a desire to help others. We feel good about these boys and the opportunities they have received but wonder about the lives of those left behind - other refugees and lost boys and girls around the world whose stories would probably not be as commercially viable. "Everything has an end", says John Bul Dau in celebrating his new surroundings, yet for millions of others the end is not in sight.