Every day, in a small Indian village, a five-year-old boy takes food to his father who works on the railroad. One day, the boy is compelled to ride a train and hides in a railroad car only to fall asleep. He awakens in a large unfamiliar city, lost and unable to say where he is from.
A policeman takes him to an orphanage, never to see his home or family again.
Fast forward 27 years—the young man, adopted by Swedish parents and renamed Jonathan, is living a happy, comfortable life but cannot forget his origins.
Scattered childhood memories and vague recollections inspire a unique cross-cultural journey and a dogged quest to find one small family in a land of millions, where record keeping is sporadic at best. With the assistance of some unusually optimistic and benevolent police detectives, Jonathan’s pilgrimage to find his family becomes a search for personal identity and wholeness, touched with heartrending emotion and humorous charm.
Director/producer: Tove Torbiörnsson
Camera: Calle Nilsson
Editor: Bernhard Winkler
Festivals
San Francisco 2000 (Golden Spire)
IDFA
Nordisk Panorama
Mumbai IFF
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The jury has selected this piece based on its compelling and heartwarming narrative. Many documentary stories can be described as stranger than fiction but MISSING BOY is one of just a handful this flawlessly executed and deeply moving.
Golden Spire, San Francisco Film Festival, 2000
MISSING BOY 1999 · 65 MIN (SVT)
