E-Mail This Article to a Friend THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN

Unlike their namesakes who fled the trauma of growing up for the eternal innocence of Neverland, the Lost Boys of Sudan grew up suddenly and brutally when Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas razed their Dinka villages and murdered the inhabitants during that country’s 20 years of bloody civil war (two million killed so far). Thousands who escaped fled parentless to UN refugee camps in Kenya, and some 4000 of these were lucky enough to qualify for repatriation in the United States. "It’s like going to heaven on earth," says one of those left behind, but of course, it proves no such thing in this harrowing and hopeful documentary by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk. They follow the fortunes of two of the boys, disciplined Peter, who ends up in Kansas attending a white-bread high school, and easy-going Santino, who takes odd jobs in Houston. At first the film seems like a Real World episode as the newcomers adjust to each other and the new realities of TV, fast food, minimum-wage jobs, urban crime, and dented dreams. But when the pair go off on their own and respond to their challenges, they reconfirm that, though no heaven on earth, America is still a place where the lost can find themselves again. In English and Dinka with English subtitles. (87 minutes)