God Grew Tired of Us (2005) — Sudan

           This award-winning documentary from National Geographic is the movie version of the book by the same title that follows the fortunes of three "lost boys of Sudan." When the Muslim government in Khartoum bombed southern Christian villages in 1987, John, Daniel, and Panther fled with tens of thousands of others. They were hardly even teenagers. Rape, disease, pillage, daily burials, wild animals, famine (they sometimes ate mud and drank urine), government troops, and hostile tribes did not prevent some 265,000 Sudanese from reaching refugee camps in Ethiopia to the east. Most of them were young boys and a few men, as women and girls could hardly survive, and so they became known as the "Lost Boys of Sudan." When Ethiopian troops started slaughtering them, the refugees trekked 500 miles south to a refugee camp in Kenya. Nine long years later, 3,600 Sudanese refugees were resettled in the United States. The film follows their survival trek across the desert, ten year wait in Kenya, culture shock in America, and then their increasing sense of isolation. But their typically African resilience and resourcefulness make this a very inspirational film. It's only fitting that John's improbable story ends with reconnecting with his mother, father, and siblings. "God," he writes, "had not forgotten me after all."