LOST BOYS OF SUDAN
Directed & Produced by: Megan Mylan & Jon Shenk.
Director of Photography: Jon Shenk.
Edited by: Kim Roberts & Mark Becker.
Released by: Shadow Distribution.
Country of Origin: USA. 92 min. Not Rated.

Out of 20,000 boys orphaned by an ongoing African civil war, about 4,000 of them, ironically named after Peter Pan’s forever young cohorts, have been chosen to immigrate to the United States. This engrossing cinéma vérité traces the journeys of two refugees, Santino in Texas and Peter in Kansas, during their first-year struggle with minimum-wage jobs, financial worries and alienation as they are forced to grow up overnight. The film’s strength is that the cameras remain invisible, peering into the day-to-day lives of Peter and Santino. Instead of an editorializing narration, this allows for unencumbered human interaction, proving in the process that the most revealing portrait of the land of opportunity is held in the eyes of its idealistic outsiders. The film is packed with fascinating and extremely telling details, like the boys’ reaction upon first entering a supermarket or the contrasts between Peter, as he tells his life story (he lost his parents at age four), and a vapid American teenager. Although the film concentrates on the despair Peter and Santino feel upon discovering that “there is no heaven on earth,” it seems to ignore the obvious luxuries they have acquired, such as cars, CD players, and fancy sneakers. However, the filmmakers treat the subject matter with much humor and compassion, elevating the film from being strictly informative to one that is both engaging and moving. Kim Reyes, contributing editor
February 18, 2004