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Beautiful film stirs painful memories for this 'Lost Boy'
This film is close to my heart because I, too, am a "Lost Boy," one of 25,000 children who fled their homes in southern Sudan to escape extermination by Sudan's Islamic government in the 1980s.
Yet this beautiful film isn't about politics. It's about how the Lost Boys became each other's family.
Seeing images of little kids carrying their luggage and taking care of one another brings back other painful memories that are captured in the film, like the immense loss of life from starvation, drowning and bombings.
Seeing the group of Lost Boys who resettled in the United States struggle with basic household chores made me smile. They appear like time travelers who must catch up with the modern world: its switches, appliances and freeze-wrapped foods.
The film also touches on how voracious we Lost Boys are for education. We have been denied so many years of schooling.
When Dau is asked what he plans to study in college, he says, "It all." He does not want to lose any more time.
The lost family, dear friends and homeland never can be returned, but the filmmakers highlight one thing that the Dinka, my tribe, and the Lost Boys still hold dear: their culture.
Listening to traditional music, performing our dances and singing Dinka songs in the refugee camp -- these things kept us together and alive, and helped us defy death's hard knock, which we all have heard.
-- Daneil Akech James earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Diego. He will return to Sudan this spring to visit his recently reunited family. He wrote this review, which appears in the current issue of Amnesty International, a quarterly magazine published by Amnesty International USA, 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY, 10001.
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