The highly-anticipated feature film Lion, set in Tasmania, will have a gala screening at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
The Tasmanian Government congratulates Saroo Brierley and production companies See-Saw Films, Aquarius Films, and Sunstar Entertainment on this well-deserved achievement.
The production received on-the-ground support from the Tasmanian Government through Screen Tasmania to shoot a number of the film’s scenes in various locations in the State.
Lion tells the extraordinary true Tasmanian story of Saroo Brierley and is based on his novel A Long Way Home. The synopsis reads, “After a wrong train takes a five-year-old Indian boy thousands of kilometres from home and family, he survives many challenges before being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only the scantest of clues, he learns of a new technology called Google Earth and sets out to find his lost family.”
As a major international feature film, Lion will showcase Tasmania’s beautiful landscapes and I am excited to see Tasmania and Tasmanian stories on the world stage.
Lion is produced by Emile Sherman and Ian Canning (The King’s Speech) and Angie Fielder (Wish You Were Here), directed by Garth Davis (Top of the Lake), written by Luke Davies (Candy) and stars Dev Patel as Saroo, Nicole Kidman and David Wenham as his adoptive Tasmanian parents, and Rooney Mara.
The screening of Lion at such an esteemed event follows on from other recent Tasmanian screen industry success stories including The Kettering Incident and the upcoming productions Rosehaven, The Light between Oceans and Nightingale.