Posts Tagged ‘films about adoption’

Shoplifters the movie

Friday, March 1st, 2019

I saw the Japanese film, Shoplifters, a few weeks ago and am still thinking about it. The theme is adoption, or at least families together who are not biologically related.  Loosely, it’s about a man who teaches his son what he knows, which is shoplifting. It’s also about a man and the woman he loves and the children they love, and how they become a family. To tell you more would reveal too much because the film is full of surprises.

I love that Shoplifters was made in Japan, by a filmmaker who is male. The reason I love these things is because they prove issues of adoption are universally felt, and by people who are not only female.

(This should be obvious, but isn’t, always.)

Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The performances are across-the-board masterful, with Sakura Ando’s portrayal of the mother particularly breathtaking. The film is rated R. My kids haven’t seen it.

Shoplifters is provocative, moving, quiet, and powerful. It’s well worth watching.

 

 

 

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Movie Review of “Lion”

Wednesday, January 4th, 2017

Yesterday, the kids, my sister Patrice and I saw “Lion.” As you probably know, the film tells the story of a five-year-old boy in India, Saroo, who is separated from his older brother at a rural train station. When Saroo gets off the train hours and miles later, he is alone and lost in the teeming city of Calcutta. Saroo spends several harrowing months surviving on the streets before a woman who runs an orphanage places him with loving adoptive parents in Tasmania, Australia, where he lives for the next twenty years. As an adult, Saroo is happy and healthy and seems well-adjusted. But, inside, Saroo is tormented by the loss of his family in India—Where is his mother? What happened to his brother? And wouldn’t they have spent the past twenty years worrying about him?

Through the wonders of the newly hatched Google Earth and after months and years of obsessive calculation, Saroo is able to recreate his journey and locate his family in India. His mother, thankfully, is alive. His brother, tragically, was killed on the same day he and Saroo were separated. The film ends with a gorgeous scene of reunion.

If you’re reading this, you may know my daughter Olivia is fourteen, my son Mateo twelve. We searched for and found each of their birth mothers in Guatemala when the children were seven. We visit Guatemala every year, often with my sister Patrice, and are grateful we are able to maintain birth family contact.

Okay. Back to the movie. Caution: The themes are mature. The theme of adoption, first. The theme of losing one’s family and being separated from people who share one’s blood. The theme of not-knowing where your birth mother is or what happened to your siblings. As every adoptive parent knows: Those themes can trigger very strong reactions in our children. Nightmare-level reactions. And they’re front and center in ”Lion.”

Second, the theme of treachery by adults. When Saroo is lost and alone, bad people do bad things, to him and to other children. Nothing awful is shown on screen—everything is alluded to and suggested. Yet, still: It’s terrifying to watch, certainly for young children, and, depending on the individual, for tweens, teens, or adults.

That said, the film was mesmerizing. My normally squirrelly kids didn’t move or talk. They forgot to eat their popcorn. We knew how it would end, but the ending still deeply moved us. When Saroo finally walks through the streets of his village, remembering places and colors and smells, and then his mother appears and they recognize each other and embrace, my very cool teenage daughter, who rarely reveals her emotions, sobbed. Broke down, weeping. Twelve-year-old Mateo was also moved, although he didn’t cry. “Here come the waterworks,” he whispered to me as he leaned in close. “You and Olivia.”

The film allowed Olivia to witness a reunion from the outside—as an observer instead of a participant—and gave her room to experience emotions that may overwhelm her when the reunion is her own. She reacted the same way I react when I see either of my kids with their birth mothers, every time. A complex mix of great love and great sadness, resulting in many tears.

Afterward, Olivia said “Lion” was the best movie she’d ever seen. Her summary: “Saroo grew up in a safe place and then he found his birth family. That’s a good story.” Mateo especially liked the relationship between the brothers; my son’s greatest distress came with the news that Saroo’s brother had been killed. My sister Patrice saw the movie twice. She said the second time around, with us, the film seemed “even sadder.” After a moment, she added, “Aren’t you glad you found their birth mothers? So they don’t have to go through life wondering.”

Yes. Yes. Yes.

“Lion” is based on the memoir by Saroo Brierley, “A Long Way Home,” which I recommend, and which our Adoption Book Group is discussing later this month.

Consider seeing “Lion,” by yourself or with your children. Like all powerful works of art, it will make you feel and think. It may leave you changed. ~

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Lion, film about Saroo Brierley

Thursday, October 20th, 2016

At the movies last week, the kids and I saw the trailer for “Lion,” due out November 25. The film is based on the memoir A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, published in the US by Putnam in 2014. You might remember the story: at five years old, Saroo was separated from his brother in a train station in India. The two boys often hopped trains to other towns in search of food. After living on the streets of Calcutta for three months, Saroo was placed in an orphanage and ultimately adopted by a family in Tasmania, Australia.

Twenty-five years later, through the wonders of Google Earth, Saroo located his hometown and the train station where his saga began, and, through determination and persistence, found and reunited with his birth mother. (His brother was killed by a train the day he and Saroo were separated.)

I’ve ordered Saroo’s memoir and can’t wait to read it. And you know where my family will be November 25.

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