(2006, 89 min) The Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, as the Muslim north descended on the Christian and animist south with torture, sterilization and murder. At least 27,000 five- to 10-year-old children, separated from their families and abandoned by the world, crisscrossed thousands of miles of desert in their exodus, foraging for food, under attack by hyenas and lions, enduring bombing raids from the north, eating mud and drinking urine. After five years, about 12,000 were left alive to make it to refugee camps on the Ethiopian border. God Grew Tired of Us focuses on three of those who made it to the U.S.
John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor never used electricity or plumbing before they left the camps they called home for 10 years. Culture shock is palpable as they roam the aisles of a supermarket in Pittsburgh, as they watch images flickering on a TV screen. We see ourselves through fresh eyes, as they adjust and adapt to our way of life. They observe Christmas as a time of spiritual contemplation and joyful commemoration of the birth of Christ, not an extravaganza of consumerism. They worry that the hours needed to work multiple jobs and to attend classes allow little time for their friends, for the family forged during their hegira. They're saddened that their memories of their homeland and their birth families are failing, growing fainter the longer they remain here. They wonder why we don't talk to each other more.
When a 13-year-old's job includes burying the dead and being an elder statesman for his group, his sense of responsibility is tempered and focused. The Lost Boys and Girls work not just for themselves but for those left behind. They search for surviving family members, sending financial support to them as they support themselves. They've survived in the face of overwhelming odds and struggle to maintain their culture and to aid those compatriots having a harder time acclimating to the new world. Through it all, they retain the ability to celebrate life and experience joy. God Grew Tired of Us is an examination of a decades-long injustice and a veneration of the human spirit.
© TLA Entertainment Group
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