Film Review: God Grew Tired of Us

Director: Christopher Dillon Quinn

This 2006 documentary about three boys from Sudan who fled the civil war in the 1980s and were given the opportunity to emigrate to America leaving their families behind. The film was released at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary as well as other awards at more minor film festivals were it featured.

It centers around three boys, John Bul Dau, Daniel Pach and Panther Bior, who as young boys in the 80's walked hundreds of miles to escape the civil war and ethnic cleansing that blighted their country. They managed to escape to Ethiopia but then had to travel again as war broke out there as well, they survived mainly in refugee camps before they were offered the chance to move to America with the help of Catholic Charities International. The film moves onto the boys experiences in adapting to life in America and being apart from their familes.

The Sudanese boys in America

The issue of genocide and civil war in America is a topic that needs to be opened out and discussed at length by the Western world, at any one time there is wars and oppression throughout Africa that is just left unhindered by governments. This film was a chance to really examine the causes of this in Africa but once again largely ignores this as turns its attention to the boys adjusting to the very different life in America which although interesting doesn't have the same interest factor to last the run time.

Moving anywhere new is a daunting experience and full of different local customs to get used to, naturally moving from somewhere like Sudan to the USA is about as different and as difficult as is possible to imagine. Once you get past the initial shock of everything being different its a film that struggles to hold much interest, the fact that some struggle with being away from their families is natural but to be honest I was more shocked that the American government were insistent on them repaying them for the airfare!

1.5/4 A documentary marked as a missed opportunity