God Grew Tired of Us (2006)
National Geographic Films

Description

Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 "Lost Boys" (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers.

Named by a journalist after Peter Pan’s posse of orphans who protected and provided for each other, the "Lost Boys" traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN’s refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey’s end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3800 other young survivors, were selected to re-settle in the United States.

Tags

1990s, Lost Boys, Sudan

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Amazon user reviews

Having known little about the past and current history of the civil war in Sudan, I was immensely enlightened about the struggle, pain, courage, and determination of the Lost Boys of Sudan, specifically the group of boys this film followed. This wonderfully done documentary reveals the reality these boys went through.
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9.4 DVD Verdict | Brendan Babish

The only real flaw of God Grew Tired of Us is that the film is too short. Still, this is a piddling complaint, and should not dissuade anyone from seeing the film. Yeah, it's about Sudanese refugees. Yeah, it's kind of a drag. But it's entertaining, enlightening, and important. That's quite a trifecta.
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9.0 DVD Talk | Preston Jones

Uplifting and quietly devastating, God Grew Tired of Us is a film that cannot withstand overpraise; build it up too much and viewers may come to it expecting a life-changing experience. I'm not trying to downplay Christopher Quinn's film, but rather suggest that it's a work that is best watched fresh.
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7.5 The Onion A.V. Club | Scott Tobias

Its message-first drumbeating, though affecting, doesn't entirely forgive its superficiality in coming to grips with the problems of assimilation and the realities of urging Westerners to the cause. It's convincing as everything but a piece of good filmmaking.
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7.5 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

God Grew Tired of Us never brings us half as close to its subjects as the far more penetrating Lost Boys of Sudan did in 2004.
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7.0 New York Times | Stephen Holden

As it balances excruciating images of hardship, suffering and starvation with wry observations of newly arrived immigrants learning to use electric appliances and visiting their first supermarket, you are won over by the charm, good manners and nobility of its three subjects.
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7.0 Variety | John Anderson

Quinn's is a gorgeous looking film, briskly paced and well-edited, perhaps too well-edited. It doesn't give one a sense of spontaneous difficulty or of the harsh realities these men must have faced, moving uneasily into mainstream America.
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7.0 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

So much history and geography is covered in "God Grew Tired of Us," and the human story it conveys is so moving and so charged with ambiguous moral lessons, that it seems almost irresponsible to complain about it on formal or historical grounds. Let's put it this way: This is an important film. It's amazing that it exists, and the events it recounts are still more amazing. Everybody should see it.
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6.0 Boxoffice Magazine | Mark Keizer

The film, narrated by Nicole Kidman, sports some high-octane celebrity producers, including Brad Pitt. Such star wattage threatens to give the project a sour, cause du jour aftertaste, but that shouldn't take away from the estimable accomplishments of Quinn and his team.
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