The movie, Lion, was directed by Garth Davis and released in November of 2016. I consider myself to be an avid lover of films, and this one is by far one of my favorites. It follows the true story of a young Indian boy who was tragically separated from his family one day in rural India and somehow ended up hundreds of miles from home. He was placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by an Australian couple.

The boy’s name is Saroo, and 25 years later he’s a grown man attending hotel management school and trying to find himself. Saroo was 5 when he got lost, meaning he vividly remembers certain things and has always felt a gaping hole in his identity. He knows he has a family waiting for him, possibly still looking for him back in India, but he has struggled his whole life on accepting that he will never find them. Until one night, he discovers Google Maps. This changes everything for Saroo suddenly, he is up every night scouring Google Maps for something, anything that may seem familiar and lead him back to his home village. Eventually after months of searching, he finds his little rural village and flies there to find his mother and brother, who he still yearns for.

The reunion is truly a roller coaster of emotions, the audience’s heart goes out to Saroo and his birth mother, but also his adoptive mother. At the same time, you watch how this event has affected his life and those around him. It is truly an incredible story, one for which words almost cannot do justice. I highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for a good cry at the end — happy tears of course. This movie not only showed me the true strength of family, but just how influential and life-changing the internet really can be.