‘The Good Lie’ is the story of four Sudanese refugees and the employment agency worker who tries to help them settle into their new life in America.
Reese Witherspoon, who plays the agency worker, says visiting a refugee camp in Kenya was the best way to prepare for her role: “It doesn’t matter how many documentaries you see or how much you read, the experience of actually seeing it first person is extraordinary,” she says.
“To see over 250,000 people living in one space and dealing with very little, it’s extraordinary and I am glad that we made a film that can hopefully raise awareness about what’s going on in the refugee camps.”
The film is based on the true story of the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’, tens of thousands of young Sudanese who fled civil war in their country. More than 3,000 of them were given the opportunity to emigrate to the United States in the early 21st century, in what has been described as the largest resettlement of its kind in American history. The refugees are all played by actors of Sudanese origin, some of whom were child soldiers, like Ger Duany.
“The suffering in the area is still there. And that’s why it is important for this movie to be shared with everybody around the world so that people know exactly what’s going on,” says the actor.
Described as “a touching, generous-hearted movie that treats the immigrant experience with grace”, ‘The Good Lie’ has received mostly positive reviews with one critic expressing relief that it’s not a film “about benevolent Americans, but rather the harrowing journey of four (Sudanese) orphans”.
“The Good Lie” is now on global release.
