The Good Lie
Short description
The Good Lie follows a group of young Sudanese refugees who survive their country's civil war and spend years in a Kenyan refugee camp before being chosen by lottery to resettle in the United States. Three of them arrive in Kansas, where Carrie Davis, a social worker assigned to help them find work, becomes more involved in their lives than her job requires. One of the young men carries guilt over a brother left behind, and the group struggles to adapt to a society unlike anything they have known.
Philippe Falardeau directed the film from a screenplay by Margaret Nagle, with Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela Sherwood and Ron Howard among the producers. It came third in Falardeau's filmography, after Monsieur Lazhar and before Chuck and later features. Reese Witherspoon plays Carrie, heading a cast of 57 credited performers that includes Corey Stoll, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Thad Luckinbill and Afemo Omilami.
Released in September 2014, the drama was made for about 20 million dollars and took roughly 3 million dollars worldwide, a wide gap between its cost and its theatrical returns. Audience response was warmer than that commercial result suggests: on TMDB it holds 7.5 out of 10 from 622 votes, while a film critics' rating stands at 6.7 out of 10 from 89 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming took place in Atlanta and South Africa.
- "The Lost Boys of Sudan" is the name used by humanitarian mission staff in refugee camps. Over 20,000 children of the Nuer and Dinka ethnicities were orphaned and became refugees during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Their fates formed the basis of the film's plot.
- In the episode where refugees fly to the USA, an aircraft with a livery that began to be used in 2008, after the merger of two airlines – “Upward and Onward” and “Northwest Airlines” – is shown, while the film's events take place in 2001.
- After Jeremiah quits his job at the supermarket and returns to the employment agency, the phone number in the window has a St. Louis area code, not Kansas City.
- When the refugees arrive in Kansas City, they head to baggage claim, descending an escalator. At Kansas City Airport, all three baggage terminals are on the same level as the arrival hall.
- Ger Duany, who played Jeremiah in the film, was himself a child soldier, a Sudanese refugee who was granted asylum in the United States.
- Emanuel Jal, who played Paul in the film, describes his own life experience as a child soldier and all the atrocities that took place during the Second Sudanese Civil War in the documentary “War Child: Emanuel Jal” (2008). Today, Emanuel Jal is a popular hip-hop artist and advocate for the rights of children in conflict zones.
- The mother of the actress Kout Vill, who played Abital in the film, is from Sudan, and her father is from Ethiopia. During the war, her parents managed to flee to Ethiopia. Her father died in 1993, and Kout Vill immigrated to the USA in 1998.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
