Analysis of the Film 'Lion' for Australia Week Film Festival

This analysis focuses on the film 'Lion' and its relevance to the Australia Week Film Festival, showcasing the diversity of Australian society.

Running head: AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
Introduction
A particular group dealing in cultural affairs shall be hosting a film festival at a foreign
country. The name of the event is ‘Australia Week’, and Australian films shall be shown in the
film festival. The chosen films shall be an account of the Australian society and to what extent
have the films upheld the principle of diversity that prevails in the Australian society shall be the
prime attraction of the films.
Statement of purpose
For the present purpose, the analysis of the film ‘Lion’ shall be provided in order to
substantiate the cause of its inclusion into the ‘Australia Week’ film festival. The analysis of the
chosen film shall be focusing upon the issue of diversity of Australian society and how it has
been showcased in the film. The aim is to prove that the chosen film deserves to be a part of the
film festival.
Analysis of the film
Synoptic view of the chosen film
The chosen film is titled ‘Lion’ which was released in the year 2016. The film has been
directed by Garth Davis and produced jointly by Iain Canning, Angie Fielder and Emile
Sherman. The film is not a fiction as it has been an adaptation of a novel ‘A Long Way Home’
composed by Saroo Breirley and Larry Buttrose which narrates a real life experience of a quest
for the estranged family members from a foreign nation, return to the nation where the
protagonist was born and finally a reunion with the biological family of the protagonist.

2AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
The plot of the film revolves around the adventures of Saroo, a village boy born in the
Khandwa district of India. Saroo lived in the village named Ganesh Talai with his parents and his
elder brother Guddu. The siblings indulged in stealing of coal from freight trains in order to
purchase milk and food for their survival. On one occasion, both the siblings had travelled to a
nearby railway station in search of some occupation when the brothers get estranged and from
then onwards the adventures of Saroo begins. Saroo desperately searches for Guddu from one
train compartment to the other over a period of several days and in the process he reaches to
another part of India, in Calcutta. Without any occupation, without any knowledge of the local
Bengali language, Saroo finds it difficult to lead a life in the new city. He wanders about in the
city streets and comes across a woman named Noor who had under the pretext of helping him
out had tried to harm Saroo. Sensing the imminent danger, Saroo escapes to lead a life on the
streets of the city of Calcutta from where he gets shifted to an orphanage and finally funds his
way to Australia where he is provided shelter by a white couple as their adopted child. Saroo
grows up, pursues hotel management but the memories of Khandwa haunts him. He tries to
locate his hometown through the google map feature. On finally being able to locate his
hometown, Saroo undertakes a journey back to his home in India. There he unites with his
biological mother and he learns that Guddu had died in a train accident that day itself when they
got estranged. With the return of Saroo to his village in Khandwa, the conviction of his mother
that her son shall return to her someday also came true. This is the plot of the film, and the
storyline on which the film is based upon in (Google.com, 2019).

3AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
Relevance of the chosen film to be featured in the ‘Australia Week’ Event
The chosen film ‘Lion’ is replete with features that exemplify the cultural diversity and
the broadmindedness of the Australian society which is not juts limited within the domestic
context, but also internationally. The very fact that Saroo had found refuge and a new life in
Australia was because of the initiative of the philanthropic organizations functioning in both the
nation to help the needy ones in India. This shows that Australia is very much aware of its social
responsibility as both a political and a moral obligation to reach out to the needy ones and
provide shelter to the ones struggling for a good life in the underdeveloped parts of the world. It
is not possible for independent organizations to work without the cooperation of the governments
especially if the area of functioning is spread internationally, and Australia has provided its
support to the noble cause of being a helping hand (Elias and Paradies, 2016).
Through the process of extending helping hand to the people of the underdeveloped parts
of the world, Australia has taken some of the population from there and had provided them with
shelter in Australia. That has led to the enrichment of the cultural diversity of the nation. The
people, as shown in the film, from other parts of the world are not just provided shelter but also
integrated well into the society where they are not just able to compete with ethnic white
Australians, but also express their cultural traits (Forrest, Lean and Dunn, 2016). Saroo in the
film led a normal life and indulged in all those activities and availed of all those opportunities
which all Australians cherished. Saroo went surfing and was pursuing hotel management at a
prestigious university. He could even cherish the Indian sweet jalebi as shown in one of the
scenes, which shows that the Indian culture thrived in Australia, and so did the people. All of
these are a matter of fact and not fiction, hence the film deserves to be shown in the ‘Australia
Week’ Film Festival (Cumming and Van der Kleij, 2016).

4AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
Conclusion
In the concluding section it can be said that the element of cultural diversity, inclusivity
and tolerance is very much present in the Australian context and that has very prominently been
featured in the film. Hence the film is worthy of being broadcasted in the ‘Australia Week’ Film
Festival. It is thus being hoped that the entry of the film shall be a success.

5AUSTRALIA WEEK FILM
References
Cumming, J.J. and Van der Kleij, F.M., 2016. Effective enactment of Assessment for Learning
and student diversity in Australia. In Assessment for learning: Meeting the challenge of
implementation (pp. 55-73). Springer, Cham.
Elias, A. and Paradies, Y., 2016. The regional impact of cultural diversity on wages: evidence
from Australia. IZA Journal of Migration, 5(1), p.12.
Forrest, J., Lean, G. and Dunn, K., 2016. Challenging racism through schools: teacher attitudes
to cultural diversity and multicultural education in Sydney, Australia. Race Ethnicity and
Education, 19(3), pp.618-638.
in Google.com, , 2019, <https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiExIn6mu3hAh
VM6nMBHWGMD0EQuAIwBHoECAsQAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com
%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLiVnbPIOOEs&usg=AOvVaw30ToXainIlDgYxM9Kx29aJ> [accessed 26
April 2019].