Movie Review: God Grew Tired Of Us

Last night I went to an advance screening of the new documentary God Grew Tired Of Us, about the “lost boys” of Sudan. (In 1983, the muslim Sudanese government initiated a campaign to exterminate all christian males, regardless of age. Tens of thousands fled, and those that survived the harrowing death march eventually ended up in a refugee camp on the border of Kenya.) The film follows what happens to three of the “lost boys” when the U.S. government offers to resettle them in American cities. They’ve never seen electricity or plumbing before, and at first America seems like a land of enchantment. There’s a great deal of innocent abroad humor as they adjust to life in their new country. One laments, “In the U.S. you can only have one wife. That will take getting used to.” They hold soda bottles up to the camera and say, “This is ‘Pepsi.’ But in our country it’s called ‘Coca-Cola.'” Soon, however, darker undertones emerge. The men must work long hours at low-wage jobs to support themselves, leaving them almost no time to visit each other. They complain of loneliness. They miss the spirit of community that prevailed in the refugee camps, and note that Americans seldom acknowledge each other on the street and that in America you can’t go up to a stranger’s house and get to know them. The town asks the men not to travel in groups, because shopkeepers find them intimidating. The men wire money back home, but there are always more friends and relatives in desperate need who can’t be helped. As the years pass, you can’t help noticing that the men are smiling less and slumping more, and starting to look more and more like … Americans. By the end of the film, the men have started organizing reunions, as well as committees to try to get action on resolving the crisis in Sudan. The film gets most of its energy from the men themselves, who are each charismatic, funny, and thoughtful. What will probably strike American audiences most is the chance to see America itself from the perspective of a total outsider. In one scene, one of the men stands in a mall, staring perplexed at the gigantic Christmas tree and Santa’s house. He asks, “Why do you do this? Is it in the Bible? It is pretty, I guess. But what does it have to do with the birth of Jesus?”