Lion (2016)
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A man separated from his family in India as a child uses modern technology to find his way home decades later.
The story
In 1986, five-year-old Saroo is separated from his family in India after falling asleep on a train and waking up in a different city. He is eventually adopted by an Australian couple and moves to Tasmania. Two decades later, while living in Melbourne, Saroo becomes haunted by the memory of his past. He begins an obsessive search to find his original home and biological family, utilizing modern tools like Google Earth to navigate the distance between his current life and the childhood he lost.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1986, five-year-old Saroo is separated from his family in India after falling asleep on a train and waking up in Calcutta. He is eventually adopted by an Australian couple and moves to Tasmania. Twenty years later, while living in Melbourne, Saroo realizes he was separated from his birth family and begins an obsessive search to find them. He eventually identifies his home as the Ganesh Talai neighborhood of the Khandwa district. Upon returning to India, he has an emotional reunion with his biological mother and sister, but learns that his brother, Guddu, was killed by a train the night they were separated. He also discovers that his birth name was actually 'Sheru', meaning 'lion'.
- First release year
- 2016
- Runtime (minutes)
- 118
- Production countries
- Australia; United Kingdom; United States; India
- Original languages
- English; Hindi; Bengali
- Directors
- Garth Davis
- Writers
- Luke Davies · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Dev Patel · Saroo; Sunny Pawar; Rooney Mara; David Wenham; Nicole Kidman; Abhishek Bharate; Divian Ladwa; Priyanka Bose; Deepti Naval; Tannishtha Chatterjee; Nawazuddin Siddiqui
- Genres
- biographical drama; adventure drama
- Themes
- identity; family; long-distance search; adoption
- Tone and mood
- emotional; realistic
- Premise and plot tags
- biographical; true story; search; cross-cultural
- Source material / true-story basis
- A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley
- Reception
- Well-received by critics for its acting, emotional weight, and visuals. It was commercially successful, becoming one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 69 · scale: 100 · review count: 45
- Awards and nominations
- Oscar · Best Picture · Nomination; Oscar · Best Supporting Actor · Nomination; Oscar · Best Supporting Actress · Nomination; Oscar · Best Adapted Screenplay · Nomination; BAFTA · Best Adapted Screenplay · Win; AACTA · Best Film · Win
- Production trivia
- It is one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time.; The film's subject, Saroo Brierley, attended a red carpet charity event for the Tasmanian premiere.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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