If you’re looking for a potential sleeper awards season contender, “Lion” may be one to keep an eye on. From afar, it may be difficult to see its bonafides, but a closer inspection reveals a lot of potential for this drama based on a true story.
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Directed by Garth Davis (“Top Of The Lake“), the film tells the incredible tale of Saroo Munshi Khan, who was lost in the slums of Calcutta as a child, and years later, using his memories and Google Maps, tracked down his parents. Vanity Fair has a moving summary of the story, and with Dev Patel in the lead role and Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara in support, this film will likely pluck the heart strings quite hard. Here’s the official synopsis:
Five-year-old Saroo finds himself alone and travelling on the wrong train away from his home in northern India. Frightened and bewildered, he ends up thousands of miles away, in chaotic Kolkata. Somehow he survives living on the streets, dodging all sorts of terrors in the process. Eventually ending up in an orphanage, Saroo is adopted by an Australian couple, and finds safety and love as he grows up in Hobart. Not wanting to hurt his adoptive parents’ feelings, he buries his past, his emotional need for reunification and his hope of ever finding his lost mother and brother. But a chance meeting with some fellow Indians reawakens his secret yearnings. With just a small store of memories, and the help of some newly-developed satellite-imaging technology, Saroo embarks on one of the greatest needle-in-a-haystack quests of modern times.
“Lion” opens on November 25th and will have its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.