Lion (2016, Garth Davis)
20/11/2023
Lion is a 2016 film directed by Garth Davis.
Based on the memoir A Long Way Home, the film tells the true story of Saroo Brierley who is played by Dev Patel. The cast also includes Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Nicole Kidman. The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, taking 2nd place in the Audience Award.
Khandwa, central India, 1986 - Saroo, five years old, second son of a very poor family, who survives with his older brother Guddu by collecting waste metals, asks the other to be able to work at night in a station near their home village. In search of his brother, the child mistakenly boards a deserted train that leaves and does not stop, taking him to Calcutta, about 1600 kilometers away.
Lost in the chaotic metropolis, not speaking the local Bengali language, Saroo survives on the streets. Hosted by people of ill repute, he manages to escape, only to be noticed by a young employee who speaks his Hindi language and who takes him to a police station so that, by publishing his photo in the newspapers, someone can recognize him. Saroo leaves for Hobart in Tasmania, where he grows up and becomes an adult.
At the age of 27, Saroo is a university student in Melbourne, with numerous Indian friends and loved ones, but he has not forgotten his roots and his family, for which he feels a sense of guilt due to his disappearance. At his girlfriend's insistence, the young man begins researching through Google Earth, desperately searching for his home village based on his fading memories, until he recognizes from a satellite image what appears to be the starting station.
Filming began in January 2015 in Calcutta, India, and continued in mid-April, in Australia, in the cities of Melbourne and Hobart.
The film had its world premiere on 10 September 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival and subsequently at the London Film Festival and the Rome Film Festival. It was released in US cinemas on 25 November 2016 by The Weinstein Company, while distribution began in Australia on 19 January 2017, and in Italy it was released on 22 December 2016.
For the film Sia composed the song Never Give Up, released as a promotional single.
The score was composed by Dustin O'Happellon and Hauschka and was nominated for Best Original Score at the 2017 Oscars.
