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Lost Boys of Sudan
Santino Chuor
The world might as well be divided into two kinds of people: those who believe in the American dream and those who've found it to be no less a fairy tale than the pumpkin that turned into Cinderella's coach. Lost Boys of Sudan follows the journey of two young men from a refugee camp in Kenya to the glorious land of the United States. Peter Dut and Santino Chuor, whose ages are no more than a guess, leave their home with a heart swelling with hope, a hope twinkling with bright lights, and arrive with other selected boys in Houston, Texas. There are a few things to be learnt quickly, as all young immigrants do: the work to be done leaves no time to make friends, between rent and traffic tickets there is little money to be sent home, American men don't hold hands unless they're lovers, minimum wage is a bitch, and though you go to bed at 1 am and get up at 7 to live the same day on repeat, folks back home will ask you call often and send money as soon as possible.
Peter Dut
As American suburbia parts the two friends, the filmmakers follow each in a different city. They have picked two intelligent, remarkable individuals whose sadness and courage sweep through all immigrants, especially the ones who are sent with celebrations and an overwhelming amount of responsibility.
However, you're in America now, forget Africa!, as one boy says on the matter of men holding hands. At a national reunion there surfaces a question in every immigrant's mind: in your heart, would you stay or go back home? Will you work endless hours to pay the rent and drive a car, or will you go where there are no promises? Will you beat the big doors until they open for you, or will you be the one to bring electricity to a forgotten village in Africa?
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