IOM Goes to Hollywood

A photo from one of The Good Lie scenes. © 2014 Warner Bros Ent. © 2014 Alcon Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

 IOM Goes to Hollywood

'Miracles are made by people who refuse to stop believing', a line I've borrowed from the Good Lie’s website, but which could certainly be mine and undoubtedly my parents'.

As a political refugee from Cuba who arrived in the United States clutching my mother’s hand and in awe over the “smoke” that came out of my mouth with each breath as we disembarked from the Ozark Airlines flight in Rockford, Illinois on a bitter cold January day in 1966, I am anxiously looking forward to the October 3rd release of The Good Lie.

The film, starring Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon, tells the story of a group of Sudanese refugees given the chance, like me, to resettle in America and start the best part of our lives. The group, part of the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, arrives in Kansas holding their IOM bags, where they are met by Ms. Witherspoon who plays an employment agency counselor.

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By 2003 there were an estimated four million people displaced inside Sudan, over 10% of the total population.
© IOM/Jeff Labovitz 2003

A Personal Reflection on The Lost Boys and the Film - The Good Lie

Several months ago I was invited to attend a private showing of The Good Lie, a film that Hollywood would be releasing to the public on October 5th. The film held special significance for those of us who had worked with this remarkable group of mostly orphaned refugees in the late 1990s and early 2000s.   Half a dozen of us piled into the IOM van and headed downtown, across the river, to an exclusive movie house in Geneva’s posh Rive Gauche district.  While others were braving the rush hour traffic, snarled by an early summer rain, some of us took secret delight in the anticipation of watching and reviewing a yet-to-be released Hollywood film at ten o’clock on a morning work day.  There was something exhilarating -- almost like a "snow day" -- about the prospect of spending time inside a dark theatre, watching a film and its cast of characters, whose aim was to essentially   capture one of the most dramatic resettlement undertakings over the past three decades.

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Related story: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan


A photo from one of The Good Lie scenes. © 2014 Warner Bros Ent. © 2014 Alcon Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

 The Good Lie: How a Small Plastic Bag Has Come to Represent My Work

I get asked about my job all the time by friends, family and even people I have only just met. I tell them I work with the US government to bring refugees to America. Oh, they say, like a travel agent? Well, yes, in some ways, I suppose. But it’s a lot more than just putting people on an airplane. How can I describe how the refugee program changes lives?

Leave it to Hollywood and one of my favorite actresses to come to the rescue. Opening in the US this Friday, The Good Lie tells the story of a group of Sudanese refugees given the chance to resettle in the US with the help of an employment agency counselor, played by the lovely Reese Witherspoon.

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Let's talk resettlement in the context of The Good Lie. See Release Dates for your Region.

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IOM's Work on Resettlement

On 25 June 2014,IOM moved 1,030 people of 20 nationalities from 30 locations. See their journeys.
 

Learn more about IOM's current resettlement activities around the world by following these accounts. 

@IOM_MENA
@OIM_LasAmericas
@IOM_UK
@IOMSouthAfrica
@IOMasiapacific
@IOMSouthSudan
@IOMNairobi
@IOMEthio