The Lion Story

Movie Review One:

The Lion Story

The movie, Lion Story and a book, a long way home both originated from a true story of Saroo Brierley, a five-year-old child from Khandwa, India that gets separated from his family and finds himself on the streets of Calcutta learning to survive. He begins a twenty-five-year journey that takes him to Australia and finally back again to reunite with his mom and sister. 

There are many themes interwoven through the story of Saroo that include; teaching children to make safe choices, dealing with past traumatic experiences, and communication of one’s true feelings in order to resolve issues and increase communication with one another.  

The Review

Saroo lives with his mother, older brother, and sister with little income to take care of their needs. Their father had abandoned his family years earlier. The oldest sibling, Gadu, had family responsibility to look after his younger siblings and to help his mother supplement income by taking coal from trains and searching for loose money on trains that were not in use.

Scene One

The first significant sequence of scenes chosen was when Saroo went with his brother to look for loose change left on stationary trains at night near his hometown. Saroo falls asleep, so Gadu leaves him and instructs him to wait for him. When Saroo awakes, he realizes Gadu has not yet returned, so he panics and searches for Gadu on one of the abandoned trains. The train begins to move, and he soon finds himself traveling more than a thousand miles to a city on the other side of India called Calcutta. Saroo only knows Hindi and finds difficulty communicating because of Calcutta uses a Bengali dialect. He also is unable to pronounce his name or the name of his city correctly, so no one can understand who he is or where he came. Saroo is lost, homeless, and vulnerable. 

Saroo befriends some other children that appear to also be homeless at the train station but are interrupted by men that attempt to kidnap the children. Saroo runs away but soon finds himself befriended by an older woman that takes him home, bathes and feeds him and reassures him that she will help him. A friend comes to see them the next day, but Saroo has a bad feeling about their intentions and runs away again. Saroo survives on the street for a couple of months by begging and looking for food when he once again is befriended by a stranger. This man takes him to a children’s shelter where he is a little safer. However, he observes a man that comes at night to take a boy away, stating he will return him in the morning. 

Aspects to look for/further review. Toward the end of the movie, a message appears on the screen that states over 80,000 children go missing from India each year, and street children estimated by the last census of the Government of India were 1.8 million (Mitra, Yadav, & Biswas, 2015). Some of these homeless children are runaways, orphans, refugees, displaced children and those from dysfunctional families who find themselves at railway stations, since most street children had to work to earn a livelihood (Mitra, Yadav, & Biswas, 2015). Such children are extremely vulnerable to abuse by railway staff, hawkers, porters, police, and even from older children that includes general abuse and neglect, health abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and sexual abuse. (Mitra, Yadav, & Biswas, 2015).

Scene Two

The second significant scene was when Saroo had become a successful 30-year-old man living with his girlfriend.  Saroo and his girlfriend visit their mutual friends, and during dinner, Saroo wanders into the kitchen and finds jalebis, which is an Indian sweet dessert, which brings Saroo back to a time when he and his older brother were in town, and he had asked him to buy him some. Saroo discloses the past he had kept hidden and shares how sad he feels that he has lived a comfortable life while his mother and family have probably spent their lives searching for him. Saroo’s friends suggest that he use google earth to try to find the village he came from so he can reunite with his family once again.   

Aspects to look for/further review. Saroo was young when he became lost, and though he went through a challenging time, it appears that he did not experience posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.  However, when the dessert brought back memories of his childhood, he also began to experience, shame, regret, and a sense of loss for the family he had left behind. Most people try to forget past traumatic events by suppressing unwanted memories, a phenomenon is known as suppression-induced forgetting, though something can trigger those memories that can remind people of something horrible they had experienced (Catarino, Küpper, Werner-Seidler, Dalgleish, & Anderson, 2015).

Scene Three

Saroos’s flashback experience opened a floodgate of experiences, feelings, and emotions. He became obsessed with finding his home. He began isolating himself and pushing away his adoptive parents and girlfriend as he began searching for his biological family. He struggled with guilt as he thought about how he lived a life a privilege while his biological family lived in poverty, searching for him for the past twenty-five years. 

His father reaches out to him with concern as Saroo left his job and has progressively become more secluded. His father discloses to him that his adoptive mother has become depressed and broken through her confusion with both of her sons’ behaviors. His adoptive brother Mantosh has behavior and substance use struggles and Saroo has distanced himself from his mother as well. Saroo talks with his adoptive mom and shares with her how he was sorry that they could not have children of their own and were stuck with his adoptive brother and him, filled with their own pasts, hurts, and traumatic experiences. His mother reveals to him that he and Mantosh were not afterthoughts but planned by his adoptive parents that really wanted to adopt children from India, showing him how loved and cared for he and his adoptive brother really were. 

Aspects to look for/further review. Intercountry adoption is an arduous transitional process for both the child and their adoptive parents. Subtle changes occur including one’s last name that connotes the idea that one’s birth country, culture, and parents can be permanently erased to create an “unproblematic” unified identity (Seethaler, 2016). Saroo struggled with trying to show gratitude toward his adoptive parents for all they had provided him though was conflicted with the guilt of abandoning his biological family and did not know how to reconcile his inner conflict.      

Therapeutic Implications

           The first therapeutic concept is the need for parents to discuss safety protection skills. Children do not realize how vulnerable they are to various forms of victimization and need to be taught how to protect themselves by setting boundaries and being aware of possible consequences of their decisions (Brenick, Shattuck, Donlan, Duh, & Zurbriggen, 2014). Both Saroo and his older brother Gadu, felt a family obligation to help provide for their family. They were forced to mature beyond their age. There were several instances that they put themselves at risk including; hoping on and off moving trains to gather things they could exchange for money and traveling far from their home at night to search for these resources. 

           The specific value of showing the scene that Saroo becomes lost and his subsequent adventure in the train station demonstrates how dangerous the world is for children. Saroo finds out toward the end of the movie that his brother was killed the same night he became lost, hit by one of the moving trains. The train station scene shows the consequences of not making safe decisions thus exposing oneself to potential traumatic situations. The skill taught by using the first scene is one of thinking through decisions and possible rewards or consequences before action is taken. There are specific cognitive connections that help children understand possible consequences of their decisions. 

           The second therapeutic concept is that the mind looks to protect itself by suppressing traumatic events that may be too difficult to process but still hidden within one’s memory. Catarino, Küpper, Werner-Seidler, Dalgleish, & Anderson (2015) explain that avoidance strategies are commonly employed by people that have suffered traumatic events. However, avoidance strategies may work in the short-term, intrusive memories may be triggered by everyday occurrences that are like the ones from the past (Catarino, Küpper, Werner-Seidler, Dalgleish, & Anderson, 2015).

           The specific value of showing the scene when Saroo is confronted with memories of his past is to help people to understand that healing from traumatic events takes time. The scene provides understanding to the complexity of processing past traumatic events and how they can affect someone many years later. The skill taught by using the second scene is how to understand the effects of trauma and to work with a counselor to process events that have happened to oneself. There is a cognitive connection made in understanding some of the long-term effects of trauma.

           The third therapeutic concept is how to communicate and be sensitive to the needs of adoptive children and adoptive parents. Barroso, Barbosa-Ducharne, Coelho, Costa, & Silva (2017) state “there is a need for adoptive parents and their children to reflect on the meaning of having been adopted, feelings of having been abandoned and the awareness of a lack of a genealogical connections to their adoptive parents” (Barroso, Barbosa-Ducharne, Coelho, Costa, & Silva, 2017). The skill taught in showing the third scene is how communicating one’s expectations and asking what expectations others have, will deepen relationships and help people to understand one another.

Intercountry adoption is difficult to navigate so the more heart felt, and authentic communication made; the better both parties will understand the expectations of the other. The specific value of showing the scene where Saroo and his adoptive mom finally share their deep hidden core beliefs that were the source of misunderstandings and contributed to decisions and actions that hurt one another was to demonstrate how important it is to share deep honest feelings to one another.  The skill taught is how to communicate using “I” statements and being more open, honest, and transparent towards one another. There is a tremendous emotional connection that is made when people share their true feelings to one another. 

Personal Implications

Personal Level Connection

           The story of Saroo gave meaning to children issues such as homelessness and past trauma and abuse. The first scene was crucial for many reasons. This writer has a calling to work with children and their families from Central America and other third world countries. United States citizens typically are naive about how the rest of the world lives. There is little understanding of poverty, violence from gangs, and government. There are no safety nets to take care of the weak and vulnerable. Saroo’s story is just an example of what many children endure in many different countries. This writer began working with undocumented and unaccompanied minors in Philadelphia and transferred to Brownsville Texas to provide counseling to this vulnerable population. Saroo’s story is heartbreaking. This writer connected with the need to help provide support and intervention with vulnerable children. It is imperative to educate children with boundary setting and to think through their actions and decisions before they make them in order to protect them from possible harm.

           The second scene was personal on many levels. This writer’s wife is from Indonesia, and she has a younger sister that has mental health and developmental delays.  She has three children that her stepmother watches over because her sister is unable to provide appropriate care. It has been challenging to adopt her youngest child, Joshua. Intercountry adoption between Indonesia and the United States is complicated and expensive and even then, must prove that a child has no one to care for them. 

The plan is to file for a student visa to have Joshua attend a Christian school in this Writer’s hometown to protect him from his biological mother. The story of Saroo was difficult to watch in the context of the perception from the Foster parents’ point of view. They wanted to provide a safe, secure and loving home but failed to realize potential struggles Saroo was experiencing.  Joshua has believed this writer and wife are his biological parents. When Joshua is old enough to understand, the family will explain who his biological parent is and who this writer and wife are in relation to him.

Perceptions of child/adolescent trauma. This writer has been studying adolescent trauma in the context of refugee and abandonment of children as they leave their home for different reasons to start their lives over in a new environment. Saroo became lost in a different town, far away from where he grew up. Confronted by child trafficking issues from the time he got off the train, he remained aware of how to protect himself from these dangerous situations. The men at the train station that were kidnapping children stranded at the station, to the woman and her accomplish that befriended Saroo, only to profit from selling him to their buyers. Even at the orphanage, he was sold to an Australian couple for profit. Saroo was a commodity that different people, in different ways, looked to make money from his precarious situation. Though Saroo did not present posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, he did present a sense of loss of cultural and self-identity. He struggled with grief and the need to reconnect with his biological family. It manifested the most through his relationship with his adoptive brother Mantosh, also from India. He struggled with accepting his own culture while embracing the culture of his adoptive parents. It was not until he resolved his abandonment issues, that he was able to accept his own cultural identity of being from India. 

Child trafficking is defined as the illegal sale of children in order to make a profit without regarding the needs of the child or his family (Brown & Roby, 2015). The perception of this writer was that no one was interested in helping Saroo find his biological mother or where he came. Saroo was adopted from an illegitimate adoption agency but instead was given to a couple that could pay for him. Saroo was fortunate that he found a loving and safe home that provided for his needs. This writer feels that because of what Saroo went through, he struggled with abandonment, loss, guilt, and shame that came through not being reconnected with his family. There should have been more effort in helping him find his home and family instead of finding a way to make money from his situation.

Personal utilization. This writer was moved personally from Saroo’s story because of one’s journey within the family. This writer is torn between understanding the rights of the biological parent with the perceived struggles of being mentally, emotionally, and financially able to care for one’s child. This writer’s nephew is the same age as Saroo when he was adopted. Though the circumstances are different, there is still the concern of what is best for the welfare of the child. 

The third scene depicted how Saroo and his adoptive mother had different understanding of the meaning of his adoption. Saroo thought she adopted him because she and her husband could not have children. He felt loved and wanted but more of a consolation prize. Saroo’s adoptive mother felt called to be his parent from the beginning, but never conveyed her thoughts to him until towards the end of his story. This writer feels that when Joshua is old enough, this writer and family will share how loved he was from the beginning and was never a consolation but rather was a gift from God. 

Professional Implications

Delivery of Therapeutic Interventions/Services

           The story of Saroo Brierley is an example of many displaced and abandoned children throughout the world. There are 21.3 million refugees worldwide, and half are under 18 years of age (Tello, Castellon, Aguilar, & Sawyer, 2017). Children are defenseless and vulnerable to violence and trauma. 

          This writer works with unaccompanied minors every day that predominantly come from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Each child has a story of living in poverty, confronted with physical and sexual violence. Many children leave home to flee from physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation (Tello, Castellon, Aguilar, & Sawyer, 2017). Casa Padre is a shelter that houses an average of 1,500 boys from the age of 11 to 17 through Southwest Key Programs in Brownsville Texas. These teens are coming to the United States to be reunited with relatives to receive an education and earn money to send home to their families. The professional applications for this writer are extensive in working with homeless children. The first step is acknowledging there is a need and then be willing to step out and fill that need. This writer left addiction counseling and traveled to Brownsville, Texas, to work with unaccompanied minors to provide empathy, love, and compassion along their journey. 

           There are many paths a licensed therapist can be called to walk towards with none being more righteous than the other. Social justice is being aware and concerned with the plight of the poor, homeless, and vulnerable.  The world is not fair bad things happen to good people. The prophet Jeremiah asked God in Jeremiah 12:1, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper, and why do all the faithless live at ease? “(New International Version). It is difficult to turn a blind eye to suffering and to shut one’s ears from hearing the cries of suffering. There are many needs in many different populations. The plight of Saroo is a call to those that are willing to listen.  Saroo’s adopted parents were willing to head that call. They could have had children of their own but decided that the world needed someone to love children that lacked a safe and loving home.  

Scenes agreed/disagreed professionally. The movie did an excellent job in presenting the needs of homeless children. The first scene depicted some of the dangers associated with being homeless. There are 1.6 million homeless youths in the United States alone with 83% who have experienced physical and sexual victimization before becoming homeless, with 15% to 52% reported being sexually assaulted since being homeless (Bender, Brown, Thompson, Ferguson, & Langenderfer, 2014). The problem is not unique to one country, city or town but rather is a global crisis.

Lessons learned/more competent counselor.   The lessons learned emanate from the three scenes chosen to discuss in the movie. The first lesson is to protect children by providing safety training to educate them in knowing how to protect themselves from potential traumatic situations in life. There are situations out of one’s control so that many children become victims of traumatic circumstances. It is up to communities to be aware of these situations and have therapeutic interventions and services in place to help traumatized victims. It is essential to be culturally competent in understanding the specific needs of intercountry adoption, refugee trauma, and the needs of the homeless. Competent counselors are trauma-informed, that understand the individual needs of abused, abandoned, and homeless children. 

Conclusion

           The story of Saroo Brierley is a complicated movie to watch because it shows the perils of human suffering through the eyes of children. Saroo grew up in poverty and looked for ways he could help provide for his family, even as a 5-year-old little boy. Through tragedy, he was lost and exposed to many different types of danger, yet protected, and ultimately finding a safe and loving home. However, Saroo still struggled with wanting to be reunited with his long-lost family. Saroo was able to miraculously find his family and reconnect with them, though for many lost children, this may never happen. 

           There are many valuable lessons that one can glean from the different scenes including; teaching a child to protect him or herself from potential danger, identifying and processing past traumatic experiences, issues of intercountry adoption; and communicating one’s thoughts and feelings to help resolve misunderstandings. 

References

Barroso, R., Barbosa-Ducharne, M., Coelho, V., Costa, I., & Silva, A. (2017). Psychological adjustment in intercountry and domestic adopted adolescents: A Systematic Review. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 34(5), 399-418. doi:10.1007/s10560-016-0485-

Bender, K., Brown, S. M., Thompson, S. J., Ferguson, K. M., & Langenderfer, L. (2014). Multiple victimizations before and after leaving home associated with PTSD, depression, and substance use disorder among homeless youth. Child Maltreatment, 20(2), 115-124. doi:10.1177/1077559514562859

Brenick, A., Shattuck, J., Donlan, A., Duh, S., & Zurbriggen, E. L. (2014). Empowering children with safety-skills: An evaluation of the kidpower everyday safety-skills program. Children and Youth Services Review, 44, 152-162. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.06.007

Brown, T. W., & Roby, J. (2015). Exploitation of intercountry adoption: Toward common understanding and action. Adoption Quarterly, 19(2), 63-80. doi:10.1080/10926755.2015.1088107

Catarino, A., Küpper, C. S., Werner-Seidler, A., Dalgleish, T., & Anderson, M. C. (2015). Failing to forget. Psychological Science, 26(5), 604-616. doi:10.1177/0956797615569889

Davis, G. (Director), & Canning, L. (Producer). (2016). Lion [Video file]. Australia: The Weinstein Company. Retrieved May 26, 2019, from https://www.netflix.com/watch/80108447?trackId=14277281&tctx=0,0,c02faefe-ec13-40d0-8c4c-c384ba634445-466679912,,

Mitra, S., Yadav, V., & Biswas, S. (2015). Child In Need Institute (CINI): Changing lives of homeless children on railway stations. doi:10.4135/9789386042064

Seethaler. (2016). Trans-national adoption and life-writing: Oppressed voices in Jane Jeong Trenkas, the language of blood. Meridians, 13(2), 79. doi:10.2979/meridians.13.2.05

Tello, A. M., Castellon, N. E., Aguilar, A., & Sawyer, C. B. (2017). Unaccompanied refugee minors from Central America: Understanding their journey and implications for counselors. The Professional Counselor, 7(4), 360-374. doi:10.15241/amt.7.4.360