On the TV program this Wednesday evening, rediscover this feature film inspired by a crazy true story that moved spectators when it was released in the cinema in 2016.
It is not uncommon for reality to go beyond fiction. And real incredible stories regularly give rise to a particularly moving film or series. This is the case with Lionbroadcast on the TV program this Wednesday, May 7, 2025. It was on Arte, from 9 p.m., that you have to go to view the feature film that moved and seduces the spectators when it was released, in 2016.
Lion Traces the crazy story of Saroo Brierley, adapting his memoirs entitled I wanted to find my mother. In a disadvantaged village in India in 1985, the young Saroo, 5 years old, follows his brother at work and falls asleep exhausted on a bench in one of the stations. When he woke up, his brother disappeared. Alone and distraught, the child then decides to get on a train and finds himself in Calcutta, more than 1500 kilometers from the place where he lives and not to mention the local dialect. The months of wandering in the streets of the city follow before a passerby discovered it and entrusts it to a local orphanage, where it will be adopted by an Australian family.
But the already crazy story does not stop here: twenty years later, Saroo Brierley decides to go in search of his biological family, without knowing where his native village is. It will take him five years of research before he ended up finally finding his biological mother in 2012. It is not surprising that his story gave birth to a film, four years later.
-Lion is produced by the Australian filmmaker Garth Davis (Marie Madeleine, the replacement). The first role is played by Dev Patel, revealed by Slumdog Millionaire. Other prestigious actors complete the distribution, such as Nicole Kidman or Rooney Mara. For the film to be as authentic as possible, director Garth Davis attended the meeting between the biological mother of Saroo and his adoptive mother, while the real Saroo Brierley helped the preparation of the film by providing essential anecdotes.
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17:25 – Saroo Brierley decided to go in search of his father
Since his reunion with his biological mother, Saroo Brierley still lives in Hobart, Australia, and continues to communicate with his Indian family. Her biological mother refused to leave India, and he offered her a house so that she no longer has to work. However, he visited him several times, and announced in 2019 that he intended to go in search of his biological father, who abandoned his family when he was a child.
13:15 – A real meeting between the mothers of Saroo Brierley
For the needs of the film, the director Garth Davis prepared to give an authentic and clean film as possible. During the development of the project, the filmmaker also attended the first meeting between the biological mother of Saroo Brierley, and his adoptive mother, in 2013. In an interview with the Guardian, Sue Brierley, the adoptive mother of Saroo, also said that she was not trying to intervene in the relationship between her son and his biological mother: “We have made our peace, Long live his life “.
