Adopting somebody from completely different culture is a challenge. It is a hard work. You not only adopting the person, you are adopting their past, and you have to accept it. Those who truly are committed to find their roots, will never give up looking for them. You also have to accept it. You adopted the child, because you want to create better future for them, not to help them to escape from the past. What if a biological mother keeps looking for her child, and after 25 years still resides in that same village she lost him from?
Just like Saroo’s mother that we see in a brand new Garth’s Davis film ‘Lion’, which is a translation from Saroo’s birth name. Garth Davis, the director of this film, will make us all to remember his name in cinematography, as I dare to think this is his best film of his so far.
Based on a true story written by Saroo Brierley, Lion touches our hearts. We feel sad, we feel happy, we love, we hate, we live through Saroo’s journey together with film characters. His story is tough, truly inspirational and completely incredible. Davis shows us all facets of struggle people face in India, completing it with his powerful statement at the end of the movie. 80,000 kids get lost in India every year. That’s an unreal number. Makes us think we live in heaven.
Saroo, very well played by brilliant Dev Patel, went through all stages lost child can possibly go through. This story has two sides, from the one hand, Saroo was extremely lucky to be adopted by amazing Australian family from Tasmania, where he lived for 20 years before he discovered his real mother. On the other hand, he lost his family and lived with this for so long, before Google Earth helped him to trace the track of his past.
Nicole Kidman was picked to feature as his foster mum in this film, by a real Saroo’s foster mum, which I found quite fascinating. No surprise, Nicole was immaculate, living through the phases of what foster mother would live through. The fact that Nicole Kidman has two adopted kids helped her to show off real emotions in Lion.
Lion is a powerful movie. It demonstrates the contrast between safe Tasmania and dark corners of India. It teaches us about what’s possible if you really are determined to turn your life around. It makes us to realise how lucky majority of us are to have roof above our heads, food in our houses and to be able to raise a perfect complete family, while others do not have this opportunity.
Are you looking for some tiny inspiration? I’d encourage you to start your New Year with booking a movie ticket to get a huge portion of shock from Saroo’s story.
