Lion (2016)
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Garth Davis's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Garth Davis originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama directed by Garth Davis. Dev Patel stars as Saroo Brierley, a young Indian-Australian man who was separated from his family in rural India at age five when he fell asleep on a train that carried him thousands of miles across the country to Calcutta. After surviving as a street child and being adopted by a Tasmanian couple, played by Nicole Kidman and David Wenham, the adult Saroo uses Google Earth to search for his birth village across an area of India the size of a country, armed only with fragmentary childhood memories.
The film's emotional power built gradually from Saroo's harrowing childhood ordeal, depicted with devastating realism by six-year-old Sunny Pawar in a performance of extraordinary naturalism, through his comfortable but increasingly haunted adult life, to the cathartic climax of his Google Earth discovery and physical return. Dev Patel earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and Nicole Kidman's single extended scene describing why she chose to adopt rather than have biological children was one of the year's most moving performances. Lion earned $140 million worldwide on a $12 million budget and received six Academy Award nominations.
