I'm weird about the way I add movies to my Netflix Queue. I'll see a brief review about a movie, oftentimes an obscure one, that really gets my attention but which I fear I'll never hear about again. So I immediately save it in Netflix even if it won't be available for months. And then, one day, it arrives. By then, I had completely forgotten about it.
So arrived God Grew Tired Of Us. Frankly, I have no idea where I first heard about it. But I popped it in the DVD player yesterday. I'm glad I did.
It's a documentary that follows three boys from Sudan who first fled to Ethopia due to a civil war and then, years later, were forced to make a 1,000 mile journey to a Kenyan refugee camp. Then, in 2001, many of the boys (who are now men) were given the chance to live in the United States with the help of Catholic Charities International.
When one of them asks about America, "Will I go to a river to get drinking water?", you know this is going to get culturally shockingly good.
The documentary's main intention is to call attention to the horrors of Sudan, but it gets you there by following the three men in America. You can't help but almost cry as someone explains a bag of chips to them, as they all gather around a lamp to learn how you turn it off and on, or as the cameras follow them wild eyed into a grocery store and through the produce section.
We moan about so much in our lives. This movie is like a well deserved slap in the face.
And the title? It comes from a moment when one of the men, while in America, reflects about his suffering as he and his family and friends spent years fleeing from violence. "It was so bad," he says. "I thought God grew tired of us."
(Youtube trailer.)
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4.05.2009
"God Grew Tired Of Us"
I'm weird about the way I add movies to my Netflix Queue. I'll see a brief review about a movie, oftentimes an obscure one, that really gets my attention but which I fear I'll never hear about again. So I immediately save it in Netflix even if it won't be available for months. And then, one day, it arrives. By then, I had completely forgotten about it.
So arrived God Grew Tired Of Us. Frankly, I have no idea where I first heard about it. But I popped it in the DVD player yesterday. I'm glad I did.
It's a documentary that follows three boys from Sudan who first fled to Ethopia due to a civil war and then, years later, were forced to make a 1,000 mile journey to a Kenyan refugee camp. Then, in 2001, many of the boys (who are now men) were given the chance to live in the United States with the help of Catholic Charities International.
When one of them asks about America, "Will I go to a river to get drinking water?", you know this is going to get culturally shockingly good.
The documentary's main intention is to call attention to the horrors of Sudan, but it gets you there by following the three men in America. You can't help but almost cry as someone explains a bag of chips to them, as they all gather around a lamp to learn how you turn it off and on, or as the cameras follow them wild eyed into a grocery store and through the produce section.
We moan about so much in our lives. This movie is like a well deserved slap in the face.
And the title? It comes from a moment when one of the men, while in America, reflects about his suffering as he and his family and friends spent years fleeing from violence. "It was so bad," he says. "I thought God grew tired of us."
(Youtube trailer.)
