God Grew Tired of Us shows the plight of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The 2006 documentary follows young Sudanese refugees who fled civil war, survived years in refugee camps, and eventually resettled in the United States.
Directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn, the film focuses especially on John Bul Dau, Daniel Pach and Panther Bior. Many of the Lost Boys walked hundreds of miles from their homes to escape violence before reaching refugee camps in Ethiopia and later Kakuma in Kenya. The term “Lost Boys” refers to a large population of children separated from their families during Sudan’s Second Civil War.
The documentary’s title comes from John Bul Dau’s reflection that the suffering and violence endured by Sudanese people seemed so extreme that even God had grown tired of them. The film was acclaimed at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. It is sometimes confused with The Good Lie, a later fictional film inspired by related refugee experiences.