The extraordinary story of Saroo, a wandering child having found his family 25 years after

Wednesday May 7 at 9:00 p.m., Arte broadcasts Lion. An original film, taking us in the footsteps of a child who managed to find his family after a life of wandering …

In 2016, director Garth Davis chose to unveil a particularly poignant film, entitled Lion. Carried by a five-star casting made up of Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, David Wenham, Rooney Mara or the very young Sunny Pawar, the feature film was able to seduce the public and criticism without difficulty. It must be said that the course of Saroo, an Indian boy who has escaped the worst, draws his origin from a true story.

Lion : the deduced story of a young street child in pursuit of his family

Lion Takes us in 1986 India in Khandwa. This is where we meet the road to young Saroo. A 5 -year -old boy, he tried to support his family with Guddu, his 11 -year -old brother. Rebarbative tasks, difficult daily newspaper … It is an understatement to say that the life of these two children is the opposite of a fairy tale. One night, Saroo will fall asleep on the platform of a station and lose track of its elder. Alone, far from his family, he will climb on a train towards Calcutta, nearly 2,000 km from his home. Having become a child of the streets alongside other kids his age, he will finally be helped by Noor, a young woman who will take him under his wing …

Saroo Brierley met his interpreter, Dev Patel

This story is that of Saroo Brierley, a businessman who will have taken almost 25 years to find his family. Born in 1980 in India, he lived in wandering after night work, in a station 20 km from his home when he was 5 years old. After a passage in an orphanage, it will be adopted by a couple of Australians. Carried by his memories, he will conduct real investigations, in particular thanks to the Google Earth application, to finally review his own. A mission ultimately successful at the bend of the thirties and told in his book I wanted to find my motherpublished in 2013. Dev Patel, her interpreter in adulthood, confided in this course like no other at TV leisure : “I was immediately inspired by the story of this young man. I spent eight months of my life trying to imagine each step he could go through. And when I finally met the real saroo, the discussion was rich, full of emotions, love and respect. I simply said that I will do everything that is my power to best transcribe his journey.”