Either too much time has elapsed in the film industry since the last political rallying cry (An Inconvenient Truth) or Hollywood has more time on its hands than we thought. Actors and actresses ranging from the overtly political (Angelina Jolie) to the endearingly moronic (Johnny Knoxville) have stuck their marks of approval on God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of the Lost Boys like ants on a log.
Winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the Nicole Kidman-narrated documentary has enjoyed critical praise primarily because of its subject matter—Sudanese refugees. While the cause is noble, it in no way justifies the overly-laudatory treatment given to God Grew Tired of Us, a film that, while charming and occasionally poignant, fails to dig deeply into the important issues surrounding the conflict.
Written and directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn and co-directed by Tom Walker, God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary chronicling the lives of John, Daniel and Panther, and their Catholic Charities International-sponsored journey to America. The three, among the 25,000 “lost boys” forced to walk for thousands of miles to escape war-torn Sudan, travel to the U.S. in hopes of building a brighter future for themselves and the friends and family they left behind.
The film’s first half is a lighthearted affair, rife with stories about the homeland, unexpected complaints about airline food and the boys’ hilarious first encounter with electricity. The effect is endearing, though the documentary does not get interesting until the halfway point. Here, the initial naivete gives way to the harsh realization that life in America isn’t easy. The boys quickly find that they have to work two, even three jobs in order to support themselves and still send back money to their families in Africa.
As the plot thickens, it also becomes more frustrating; lacking a clear focus, God Grew Tired of Us raises many important issues but fails to adequately explore them, much less provide solutions. One of the boys asks why the U.S. would choose to intervene in Kosovo or Iraq but not in oil-rich Sudan? Rather than sparking deate, the query is limited to rhetorical purposes, lingering in the air for a while before being forgotten. The boys are clearly intelligent enough to at least conjure up a guess as to why the U.S. has not taken a stand. John, after all, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics during his stay in America. But the filmmakers choose not to ask further questions, leaving the audience vaguely incensed but without a clue about the reality of the situation.
The boys’ feeble grasp of English often prevents them from fully expressing their thoughts. When confronted with a group of younger Sudanese men sporting American hip-hop apparel, the three boys could easily have discussed deeper themes such as what it means to be “black” in America today. Instead, they complain about Sudanese who have lost their tradition, repeating over and over how important it is to hold onto tradition. While the use of English was appropriate in the humorous first half, the film might have provided more insight into serious topics had the boys been allowed to address issues in their native tongue.
Asking more questions than it answers, God Grew Tired of Us fails to provide anything more than a superficial take on the experience of Sudanese refugees in the U.S.
