While the movie hasn’t premiered yet (it’ll first be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in October), there are already many who think this could be a strong awards contender. That’s partly because of a good cast and an incredible based on a true story plot.

Here’s the synopsis: ‘From the production team that brought us The King’s Speech comes Lion: the incredible true story of Saroo Brierley and his 25-year odyssey. Precocious five-year-old Saroo Khan is always up for an adventure. Eager to help his older brother Guddu with any odd job that will provide their family with much-needed money, Saroo follows Guddu everywhere he goes. One night the two boys are separated on a train platform in their native Madhya Pradesh, and Saroo winds up nearly a thousand miles away in Calcutta. Homeless in a strange city where he doesn’t speak the language, Saroo gets by on his street smarts until he is taken in by a government orphanage. When an Australian couple adopts him, he is taken to live with them in Hobart, Tasmania. It’s not until Saroo leaves that island as a young Australian man that he begins to wonder what became of his first home and the family he so adored. Ingeniously using satellite images from Google Earth, he finds a lead to follow up on. But the search for Saroo’s past threatens to overwhelm his present, and he finds himself further adrift than he ever imagined possible.’

Dev Patel plays the grown-up Saroo, with the likes of Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman, and David Wenham also starring. It’ll be getting an Oscar friendly US release at the end of the year, and should arrive in the UK shortly afterwards. [Read more…]