Poster © Transmission Films. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreBiography & Drama
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 58 mins
ReleasedJanuary 20, 2017
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorGarth Davis
StarringDev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara
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Lion (2016)
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| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Lion's Details | |
| Genre | Biography & Drama |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 09/10/2016 (TIFF); 01/19/2017 (Australia); 01/20/2017 (United Kingdom) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 58 mins |
| Budget | $12M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley |
| Country | Australia, United Kingdom, United States, India |
| Language | English, Hindi, Bengali |
| Lion's Interests | |
| General | Trains, jalebi, Google Earth, Hobart, old memories, the long way home. |
| Music | Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka, plus Sia's original song, Never Give Up. |
| Movies | Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Dev Patel, another kid finding his own way through India. |
| Television | Top of the Lake. Garth Davis co-directed the first season before making this. |
| Heroes | Saroo. Five years old, completely alone, and he held on to every memory he had. |
| Lion's Crew | |
| Director | Garth Davis |
| Writers | Luke Davies |
| Producers | Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Angie Fielder |
| Cinematography | Greig Fraser |
| Music | Dustin O'Halloran, Hauschka |
| Edited By | Alexandre de Franceschi |
| Production | The Weinstein Company, Screen Australia, See-Saw Films, Aquarius Films, Sunstar Entertainment |
| Distributed By | Transmission Films (Australia), Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom and Ireland) |
Sunny Pawar carries the first hour of Lion on his tiny shoulders, and the movie loses something when he grows up. As young Saroo, he’s a little kid alone in a huge, loud city, and Garth Davis shoots it from his height: strangers’ legs and crowded platforms. It’s tense and heartbreaking without ever pushing. Then the film jumps ahead to Dev Patel, and the pace drops hard. A lot of the second half is Saroo hunched over a laptop scrolling satellite images, which is true to the story and not much to watch. Rooney Mara’s Lucy is warm but mostly there to worry. Nicole Kidman gets one quiet scene explaining why she and John chose to adopt, and it’s some of the best work of her career. Patel is very good at the weight of not knowing. It made $140.9 million worldwide on a reported $12M. An 8.3 because the search is sincere and the ending earns every tear. $763 says you open a map app tonight and zoom in on the street where you grew up.
What works: Sunny Pawar’s performance as young Saroo is astonishing, and the ending hits with total honesty.
What doesn’t: The adult half drags through long stretches of screen-staring and moping, and Rooney Mara’s girlfriend role is thin.
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a true story about family, adoption and home that’s moving without being manipulative.
Spoilers
Saroo finally recognizes a landmark on the map, travels to India and finds his way back to his village, where he’s reunited with his birth mother. He learns his brother Guddu died the night they were separated, and that his real name, Sheru, means lion. The film closes with footage of the real Saroo and both of his mothers.
In 1986, five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) follows his big brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) to a train station in central India, dozes off in an empty carriage and wakes up with the train rolling. Days later he is alone in Calcutta, where nobody speaks his language or knows the name of his village. He is eventually adopted by Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman, David Wenham) and raised in Tasmania. As a grown man, Saroo (Dev Patel) starts searching for the family he lost, one satellite image at a time. Garth Davis directs, from Saroo Brierley's memoir. One hundred eighteen minutes, a very long way home.
Anyone who has ever gone looking for home. Take all the time you need.
| Dev Patel | Saroo Brierley |
| Rooney Mara | Lucy |
| David Wenham | John Brierley |
| Nicole Kidman | Sue Brierley |
| Abhishek Bharate | Guddu Khan |
| Divian Ladwa | Mantosh Brierley |
| Priyanka Bose | Kamla Munshi |
| Rohini Kargaiya | Shekila |
| Deepti Naval | Saroj Sood |
| Tannishtha Chatterjee | Noor |
| Nawazuddin Siddiqui | Rama |
| Riddhi Sen | Café Man |
| Kaushik Sen | Police Official in Calcutta |
| Rita Roy | Amita |
| Menik Gooneratne | Swarmina |
| Pallavi Sharda | Prama |
| Sachin Joab | Bharat |
| Arka Das | Sami |
| Madhukar Narlwade | English Speaking Man |
| Daniela Farinacci | Tutor |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 8.0 / 10 (269,729 votes) → 8.0 / 10 (269,748 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +400 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $140.9M; Domestic box office $51.7M; Opening weekend $123K; Profit / loss (est.) +$52.4M; Rotten Tomatoes 84%; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 84% (270 reviews); Metacritic 69 / 100; IMDb users 8.0 / 10 (269,729 votes); movie.guru score 8.5.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.