Saroo And Sue Brierly Discuss The Film, "Lion"

[Music] is that before your from Calcutta which bud I'm adopted I'm not really I mean you're starting to remember sir or a beautiful boy very proud of yourself a life I'd forgotten you okay I had another family a mother her brother I can still see their faces it happened either Zelman we got a tombliboo tower good [Music] I have to find my way back home how long were you on the train couple of days couple of days it would take a lifetime to search all the stations in India yeah any idea what it's like how every day my real brother screams my name always thought that I could keep this family together I need you sir Oh what if you do find home I'm not even there and you should keep her Jack I don't have a choice [Music] what was she like beautiful every night I imagine that I'm walking those streets huh I don't know every single step of the way I'm whispering hurry I'm here one more time ones here and I go for the double applause on you because as I said to you in the green room it's not often that you get a movie made about your lives and it's even more not often if that's the right way to put it that a good movie is made about your lives congratulations it's a wonderful film well thank you thank you very much both of you are portrayed by some of the best actors and actresses that we have you have Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman let's start from the beginning it's it's it's it's based on your story and a book that you wrote in was it 2013 2011 that the book was published a 2013 2013 how did they first approached you to sort of to turn this into a movie and what were some of the did you have any discrepancies or hesitations going into it it was everything just expedited so quickly from you know finding my family in 2012 to all of a sudden you know a book and then the movie just coming across so you know within sort of six months pretty much but I guess you know when you do sort of have a story and you've written it as a book as it memoir and then you sign those piece of papers to get it to to be into a motion picture sometimes it feels like it's been you know sort of running away from you and then you also feel you know how sort of diluted is going to be as well from having that creative sort of rights to but I think being we see soar films it was really great because they just wanted to keep it so earthy and natural to the real currents and and that's that's why we went with cs4 films we had to have the trust that they would give our story the respect it needed and keep it authentic and that was our main criteria because we didn't want it you know made into something that it wasn't so we're really happy that it was treated in that way and it's turned out to be a movie like no other I've seen and we couldn't be happier with the outcome it's just everyone's put so much effort into it it's wonderful which they definitely do they treat it with respect and and authenticity and one of the ways that I think that they do that is the depiction of your family you know you you have a wonderful family but like any family there are blemishes there are problems and the film is you are okay as a family depicting that in the film does a wonderful job of doing that as well did you ever have any hesitation as to how the how your family dynamic would be depicted well I was quite concerned about it obviously but once we had written his book and you know there were many chapters in that that were quite close to the bone if you like and so once that was out well I thought well heck you know now we're doing a film there's no where to hide anymore so that just lets just show it as it is and that's exactly how it turned out but I think in some ways though that if we'd glossed over the tough stuff that wouldn't have been authentic and also it creates a lot of opportunity for people to think about things they do in their lives because of that in a right from the bureaucrats who decided that man Tosh couldn't come to us for two years and really had his life potential ruined by bureaucrats and yet Saru came to us within seven months and was fully able to settle and rehabilitate and make a wonderful life for himself so the film shows that it is rather raw and man choices found it quite difficult but it is as it is it is the truth and I'm hoping that the film might improve situations of with adoption in any country really talk about the your story before the adoption the films a photographic photographic depiction of India and the child that plays use each other it's just it's it's breathtaking the the filmmaking in that scenario is that how you remember it do you remember it looking like that and feeling like that of course like little sunny power he's just an amazing like he's never sort of acted before and his facial expressions like I've watched the film about 20 times well 25 times now um because I've just been in India and during the premiere but I look at his face and it's just crystal-clear pitch perfect the way that it exemplifies little sorrow and I just get drawn in so much and you know that's that's incredible it's just so touching to me but you know I have a little sort of soft spot there but he goes you know he goes through this journey this amazing journey and such a resilient soul for him to sort of train personify little me just incredible and for me obviously seeing what's through went for went through before he came to us was pretty touching because we knew about these issues through who had told us but when I saw it again in front of my eyes with his darling little boy and it was just so real you know it really is quite cutting to watch that and then furthermore when he's in Australia with us I'm able to relive those wonderful times with Saru when he was little you know the scenes like looking into the fridge and you know just so many things that are there it's like having my little boy all over again Nicole Kidman's performance when when bringing Saru home is one of the most beautiful performances I think I've seen this year if not in a movie I mean to her her eyes in the way that she looks at him and the sort of wonder and awe that she has brought me to tears when I was watching the film was it like that for you in that moment did that capture it like how you felt as well oh definitely because really meeting Saru for the first time and being mindful of the fear he might be holding I handled him I'd waited a long time and studied up the best way to go about doing things like the meeting it was really so authentic and you know I didn't want to create any fear in Saru when we met by being too effusive and anyway I just did my best and it worked and she has portrayed it perfectly through dev portrays the sort of moments in your life when you started coming to grips with having to look at the past and sort of maybe and find your family for the sake of an hour and a half long film two-hour film that has to be obviously like crunch up a little bit but what was that what was that moment like for you was it as sort of momentary and hit you as quickly as it seems in the movie or was it over the course of time that you started to really think about going back and trying to find your family during sort of oh my adult life it became the upwelling became more prominence and I think you know what you saw of going on Google if that's quite obsessive behavior quite regimented to because I think you know I didn't tell anyone that I was doing it um let alone so I didn't ever tell my family that I was doing it all sort of mucking around initially it's a six year journey and I didn't really you know what I was sort of getting into but at exterior knee yeah well sort of starting haphazardly on Google Earth and using you know science and maths and then also going so in the sort of latter part of the six years to becoming more methodical in the way that you searched and becoming regimented and being sort of what is it sort of unconventional about the way that you think about things really really helped because you had to escape this world and become and coming to a different world of a well a realm of a will that that you know you found peace and you could think without sort of people infiltrating and helping and convincing and manipulating into like it's a needle in a haystack it's you're not going to find it so I think you know that scene is so beautiful because that's the way I was he just have hope and determination and you know you're trying to autonomously transcend into finding what you've been looking for such a long time for me really Saru starting the journey had its origins in the couple of years he left home to go to uni and that was the first time he'd lived away from our family home and he reconnected with a lot of his student peers that were from India and that was really rather lovely and I was quite excited about that because before that he hadn't really sought to do much of that reconnecting of people from India in Hobart so he came home with some Indian clothing on one occasion and I thought what's going on here it was really good but overall we couldn't have been more proud of Saru in the way he undertook his search because the outcome was so wonderful what was it like for you during that six years where he kind of kept this a secret and went and was on his own search I guess there's probably five years where he kept it a secret or before you sort of came forward and said what what you had been doing or was the entire six years that it's aa six-year yeah uh was that isolating or alienating um will isolated everyone yeah but the thing about it was I was so fearful but I was so tactical too because I found I achieved quicker and faster without people sort of intervening and I felt you know if I told anyone or if at all you know sort of people close to me that they sort of veer me away from my main objective so that was I guess you know going from haphazardly to becoming quite methodical and then you know not sort of having other people intervene I don't know it just happened that way and I don't think it could have been any better really for me you know I've had people say what were you disappointed or angry that Saru kept this such a secret but really I'm not because Saru was becoming a man and quite rightly he was making his own decisions and I didn't have any resentment about that act and I got the icing on the cake because then he found his first family and gave the news to us and it was so exciting I couldn't have been better so I don't regret that just through searched on his own take me back to the moment where you met your biological mother what was what was what was that like I think is an experience that you've you've got to be there really it's a it's a time where the earth in the you know time Stood Still you've been longing for something of this sort of point in time for such a long time thinking that you'd never sort of achieve it and I guess you know was sort of searching and all that you also wanted to try and conquer that you know try to sort of sort of your mind sort of you know make it sort of think more than what we sort of in the realm and sort of in the social sort of capacity we sort of staying that we're bigger than what we think we are and if we have to give it if we give our mind the opportunity to sort of you know really outside the square that we live in then we can sort of really you know I guess the sky is your limit so I was testing myself to to see how intelligent that I could really get and and I think you know I proved it by standing in front of my biological mother you know she's looking at me and I'm looking at her and for 25 years I've been searching for her my subconscious but you know I get achievement I guess achievement is relative to effort and it was such a pivotal time where we you know sort of hugged and kissed and and sort of cried a lot because for her I've been you know gone away I you know twenty-five years ago I vanished like a ghost and all of a sudden I reared materialized on his Sunday afternoons just standing in front of us so extremely emotional time you say you you just premiered the film in India has she seen it yes she has aimed and I was right next to her you know and she just had tears pouring down because you know there's myself and there's my brother as well good - who came along on the train ride and she remembers to the point where you know we're all playing as a family and then all of a sudden my brother and I we sort of left off that night and she never saw it so there's telling her what happened but in that sense but then visually you know letting her see what really happened was extremely powerful and um you know that's just that's just something that I think she needed to see to really sort of feel that you know this is the way that it really went as opposed to having her own imagination of what she think think's really happened I think with the film for mothers I could fill in the gaps with the things that I didn't see as in ceruse early years and for Carla she could fill in the gaps of Sarah's life that she didn't see and they have absolutely intense needs within you that you really feel you have to get that information so you know I really would have loved to have been with come when she saw the film for the first time anyway we were rolling on on the journey and sharing our story but I think you know it would have been pretty tough for her as it was for me you know just can't explain the intensity of that feeling and you've met her I have I met in Kammler in May 13 and I went over to India with Saru it was a for a 60 minute story but you know it was so well done but it was just the most amazing experience and you know we drove in as far as we go with a vehicle and then Saru led me along the line and she was waiting there and there were cameras and things there but quite frankly to this day cannot remember seeing them I just sort of went into this bubble if you like and we had a translator and we held each other and I wanted to ask her a couple of things so I asked the interpreter to say to come did you always feel that Saru was still alive and she said yes and you know for me that was just the most incredible thing and I thought oh my goodness you know every night of your life going to sleep in these conditions trusting that your little boys still alive but as she said she had not seen his body so she just kept that up and she's a very spiritual woman and sought guidance from advisers who said no your son is still alive and she believes that so then the next thing that made me cry and there I am standing there in the dirt in the street and she's trying to comfort me and wipe away my tears which you know I had the good life really I had the blessing of her son and then she said to me through the interpreter you know don't cry he's your son I give you my son and it totally I lost it then oh really it was just the most heartfelt gift oh you know I really can't explain it further than that but it was just really something I'll never forget do you want to say you don't want me to cry don't say things like that to me well if I do you can too anyway as a woman as a mother I just could not be more fortunate and lucky and happy I have to ask going backwards a little bit and we kind of already talked about this but what did you think when saroo finally showed you everything that he was working on was there a part of you that was kind of like it is a needle in the haystack and you wanted to sort of you know talk him out of looking for this because you'd most likely come up empty I mean it's a miracle that that you didn't come up empty handed in your search it's a beautiful incredible miracle and I think any sort of rational person who wasn't in the search with you would be like hey it's not gonna work out buddy I'm really sorry was there how did you sort of not singled him and be so be supportive well for me John and I did not know Saru had been searching all those years had kept it a secret which you know I accept that that's a man's decision to do that so he went into the office one morning and sat down in front of John and said dad I think I've found my home I think I found where I've come from and of course John was rather speechless but then he understood why Sir II was always late for work anyway so we had the pleasure of that I mean I guess I would have said we'll help you know don't tell us oh yeah but by the time he had succeeded he had been successful and I really the only thing that might have been a problem is if he'd got there and his mother hadn't stayed there but I just had a feeling you know I just sort of feel that I had a trust that he would succeed I've always trusted that the rule will succeed in whatever he does and he did so yeah that's just how it happened so what's it like having you you know you were you were adopted by this wonderful family you lived in us you lived in Australia you were given a you know an incredible life and and opportunities and then you you find your mother and she is still living in this Inn in this village and you know prior to being adopted she she worked as a collecting rocks essentially you know for a very small amount of pay what's that feeling like to sort of go back and see her and then go back to your other life in Australia how do you sort of reckon with with those things I don't really I don't really get let it you know sort of come over me I promise quite sort of segregated with those feelings I just think that life is meant to be the way it is why I put so much brain strain into something that you know it's not going to have a lot of effect it's just going to make you feel down or give you sort of other opinions that are not necessarily warranted so I think you know what's happened to me in you know sort of my trajectory of them from where I started to where I became too you know what's happened to my biological mother it's just the way it's you know it happened to be you know I'm not going to sort of I said cry over spilt milk because I went through all the trials and tribulations and hardship but you know taking that into account and then you know answering your question it's it's just you know I don't think there's any issues between myself a biological mother and and my mum Suzanne here as well it's we're all happy you know we all live in harmony and I help my mother out by you know I'm giving us some money and also buying her a house as well that you know back twenty twenty-nine years ago now we would never been able to afford it because we lived in the slums and went through adversity so um you know we all have done some hardship but it doesn't mean it consumes you and takes you down so um but it's great life is awesome I really like the phrase brain strain thank you for giving that to me now I'm gonna open it up to the audience for some questions who has questions out here you have a microphone I had the opportunity to hear you speak at a screening here in New York that an adoption Institute hosted and it was very powerful and I wondered if you could speak to how through the book and film your personal narrative has resonated within the Foster and adoption community well look there's so many people that have just come forth out from the shadows and and has made them you know it's so it's been so enthralling to them that they need to speak up as well about things which you know it's an extremely personal story I'm not to myself but you know the other people too not just you know not just from India but from the globe in every nation and so there are all these stories coming around from adopt sort of adopted children to people that have lost family and and so on and and they all want to sort of you know search for what they've been longing for for such a long time I think this is probably the panacea that I've been looking for such a long time - you know sort of open them up and talk to people about it including their friends and and you know for me I've been sort of walking for such a long time with all these weights on my shoulders I'm trying to find a resolution and you know by doing by listening to myself in my dreams I have succeeded and I think you know by people reading the book and seeing the movie I hope you know they sort of find what they've been longing for and those waits on their shoulders do sort of do sort of come off yeah I think probably for me I'm hoping that it'll raise a lot more discussion about adoption in Australia adoption isn't sort of thought of so well because of the ways that we've treated adoption over the decades and we have very little adoption now so I'm hoping that it'll create a lot more demand I'm also hoping that adoption will be a way to deal with the millions of refugee children and accompanied and orphaned overseas particularly in the Middle East that have really no hope and they're the Forgotten refugees so there I see wonderful families waiting to be created and I want people to educate themselves and make themselves worthy of receiving another woman's child I really just hope that everyone starts thinking a little more humanely I just think the world needs to because there's such a great need what's it like for the two of you to be sort of touring with this film and talking to people about it specifically in in this country right now while we're in the midst of a you know judicial disagreements about an immigration ban that specifically affects refugees that you use well you know it's a very sensitive thing here obviously that people are rather fragile at the moment but in Australia we're sort of quite settled politically and it's a much smaller country of course so but the thing is the problem for us there is that the availability of adoption is very minimal even though we've got agreements with many countries we don't actually facilitate them and so we had agreements sorry well we have in Australia we still have them but you guys don't have them now I believe and I just can't think why we should be going backwards in this you know we were then on the other hand you travel into places into Europe and so forth of which I've done in the last couple of years and you know it's it's very difficult it's a very tricky question because you go to places where it's you know their culture and their cities and towns are quite affected by a lot of refugee intake but just mainly it seems of a particular kind of refugee where I think the refugees that should come first to the children so that puts me at odds with a lot of refugee availability in planning I've got my priorities set a little differently my joke was glib but I we should be sort of maintaining our agreements with with ASHRAE if the majority of Americans have anything to say about it hopefully we will next question so as a fellow Australian thank you for exporting your wonderful stories and I'm really proud of the story that you've portrayed and if I was working for Kleenex I'd also be thanking you because there certainly wasn't a dry eye in the cinema my store my question really to you is was there a point at which you would have stopped searching and my second part of that is if not what is the message that you would have for people who face similar levels of adversity as you had I looked there was there was plenty times where you sort of thought that you should stop because it's driving you nuts you're going around in circles and you know not realising that your victim people - the same time but it was something that you had to you know maintain and keep going to achieve but you know there was times when at night you sort of put the laptop down and walk away in dismay because you know when you zoom in to Harrow train station and then start following these railroad tracks and then zoom back out you've only gone sort of you know a centimeter and you know are you going around circles every sort of redone things it was just crazy and and you sort of go to sleep then you wake up and you you know you don't know what time it is I mean I thought I was going crazy but to keep myself sort of regimented but you know I think at the end of the day this film and this story is amazing to people and for me the reason for writing it and putting it out there because I had a choice you know I didn't have to put it out there but there's the humanitarian side to it and to empower and encourage other people in a similar situation is the best thing that I could have really wanted because like I said before it's it's not great living every day with some sort of these weights on your shoulders and having that in Australia the reminiscing of your past identity crisis you know and yeah I think if this film goes out to those people and I think there's more out there too that have haven't seen it that that can be empowered by it I have to ask you know I interviewed Dev Patel for the film and I asked him what you thought of his performance and what kind of conversations you had and he said the only thing that you said to me said that you liked the performance but that you wished he was bigger you wish it is that true did you tell him that you wished she had been a bit bigger lol see he was pretty good haha he certainly did an amazing job and but yeah he he worked out and like when to the gym and you know pump some weights and had lots of meat to protein and I don't put on a bit of weight and I think really when I was hugging him he felt very much like Saru at that age Deb's 26 and you know Cyril was probably very much like that and so was little Sonny when I held him it was just you know I could shut my eyes and just imagine Saru back then was just so divine I think we have time for one more question right here thank you for being here can you describe what the awards season experience has been like for you thus far well it's just another dimension another level but hey look um you've got to remember that you know four years ago I started this and I started it from you know the search in my in my memories of everything to becoming a documentary to becoming a book that published in 2013 and came out in 2014 and became an international space seller and so you know I was driving it along and and it's it's you know from sort of taking the book out to the world and entering and talking to people as yourself and others it that was one level but now sort of being a motion picture is another level and it's a great experience and I think the way to sort of you know conclude is is just say well let's have fun because we've just put so much effort into this and here it is the fruits of your labor unbelievable I have to let the two of you go thank you so much for being here line is in theaters right now congratulations on a beautiful film and a wonderful floor thank you so much thank you

Channel: BUILD Series

Views: 174,059

Keywords: Saroo Brierley, Sue Brierley, Lion Movie, Lion, entertainment, Dev Patel, OscarNom, GoldenGlobesNom, movie, film, parents, lost, boy, adoptive parents, train ride, drama, RickyC, 2017, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, The Weinstein Company, Indian, A Long Way Home, autobiographical, journey, biological parents, SAGNom, AOL Advertising, BUILDseriesNYC, AOL Inc, AOL, AOLBUILD, #Aolbuild, build speaker series, build, aol build, content, aolbuildlive, BUILDSeriesNYC

Id: tvLAwvqbO80

Length: 32min 35sec (1955 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2017