Lion
2016 · Directed by Garth Davis
Original language: English
- drama
The story
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
What it’s like
Warm, sun-bleached Indian streets give way to cool, muted Tasmanian interiors in this emotional drama, so the palette itself carries the sense of displacement. Garth Davis favours long, quiet takes and handheld closeness, with dusty ochre light and crowded, humid frames in the early sections, then soft grey daylight and clean suburban rooms. The score is sparse and melodic, leaning on piano and strings, with stretches of near silence that let ambient street noise and wind do the work. Its vibe is aching, patient and hopeful, the kind of film that unfolds slowly across a rainy afternoon or a late evening alone. The emotional register is restrained but tender, following a young boy's long separation from home and a grown man's slow, anxious return to his past. Its child-in-danger scenes bring real fear and sadness, with peril and hardship that land hard but are seldom graphic, and there is some brief violence and a few rough moments in orphanage and street settings. Adoption, memory and identity sit at its centre. It suits viewers who want a moving, grounded story of belonging, and who can sit through a few heavy stretches for a deeply humane payoff.
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