The 1983 civil war in Sudan orphaned thousands of children. They went on walks across deserts and savannahs, to find refuge barefoot, with no support, no adults, and seemingly no valid goals, for hundreds of miles, only to be turned away at their destinations.

The Good Lie follows a group of boys and girls, and later men and women, as they eventually found shelter in a refugee camp. Fifteen years later a humanitarian effort brought 3,600 of the lost children, now young adults, to America.

How do you transplant a person with that background to St. Louis, Missouri so they could find jobs and start new lives?

Culture shock always makes good subjects for movies. The Good Lie is a feel-good movie about culture shock in the most extreme possible. It’s a movie I watched for the story. When the credits rolled, I felt grateful for my own comparatively simple and straightforward life.