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New film follows move of Lost Boys
archived from: 2007-01-29
by: Patricia Bartos

Panther Bior and Daniel Abol Pach are becoming accustomed to being interviewed — and to appearing on the red carpet.

But they are the most unlikely of celebrities.

The two young men spent their harrowing early years as part of the Lost Boys of Sudan. They were among thousands of boys who had fled certain death in war-torn southern Sudan, traveling by foot for 1,000 miles.

A new documentary detailing their relocation, “God Grew Tired of Us,” which is winning favorable reviews, will open in Pittsburgh Friday, Feb. 9, at the Regent Square Theater.

The Newmarket Films documentary by Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker won the grand jury prize and audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and the Deauville Film Festival award.

It focuses on three of the Lost Boys — Panther and Daniel, both of whom were relocated to Pittsburgh, and John Bul Dau, who was resettled in Syracuse, N.Y.

The Sudanese war began in 1982 and has taken the lives of an estimated 2 million people. When the Arab forces in the north undertook a campaign to kill young males in the south, some 27,000 boys between the ages of 5 and 10 fled. They headed at first to Ethiopia and later to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya, where they spent 10 years.

On those endless journeys they formed themselves into makeshift families to care for one another as they traveled through desert, forged rivers and fought off wild animals. The boys saw death at every turn. Just 12,000 of them made it to the camp. Almost 4,000 of them have been resettled in the United States.

Panther, 27, and Daniel, 25, were resettled in Pittsburgh six years ago through Catholic Charities, among some 40 Lost Boys sponsored by the agency.

Both have worked hard to build a future in their new country. Panther lives in Castle Shannon, works for Allied Security and is an accounting student at Point Park University.

Daniel lives in Baldwin’s Prospect Park, works at Whole Foods in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood and is a pharmacy technician student at Community College of Allegheny County.

“The future is too tough to imagine,” Daniel said. “You look back to the life we’ve been through. It’s really been a struggle.”

He wants to bring his mother to this country but has not yet started the process. “School takes all my time,” he said.

“The future is education,” Panther said. “‘Trying’ is my word.”

Both have finally been able to locate family members after years of separation. Both young men are from the village of Bor, along the Nile River, and have learned that their mothers are still alive there.

Panther returned to the camp after four years to marry his girlfriend, Nyanthiec. His worries continue as he has been unable to win her entry into this country. He is supporting her in an apartment in Kampala, Uganda, and funding her education.

The film first finds the three young men in the camp and follows their transition into life in this country. It shows young men of great dignity and aching loneliness who must continue a life they never sought. They undertake yet another transition and begin yet another journey with much to learn. They have never used electricity and don’t know what an apartment is.

In the camp, the documentary reports, the Lost Boys lived in despair — “I can sometimes go crazy. It’s like waiting for your grave,” one says in the film. But they also formed strong brotherly bonds and cared deeply about one another.

Even as they found new lives in this country, all continue to look back at those still in the camp. They worry that the younger ones will give up hope, and they continue to wonder why they were chosen. They also busy themselves trying to reunite with and locate lost family members.

“The people who remain there are really suffering,” Daniel said. “If we have been chosen, we have to help.”

Panther added that, “It gives one hope. Now we are in America. But we think of when we were in the desert, with no clothes. I flash back to how my brothers missed the chance to come to America.”

Panther has two young brothers still living in the camp.

“I have tears of joy and tears of sorrow,” he said.

“It’s a blessing for Catholic Charities to be involved in resettling these young men,” said Patricia McCullough, executive director of Catholic Charities. “We hope to continue to work with them. We’ve seen them accomplish so many things. We see their unending hope and know they never lost their faith in God.”

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