Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Finding the Way Home’ on HBO, a Heart-Wrenching Documentary About Orphaned Children

It’s the Christmas season, and HBO’s new documentary Finding the Way Home is appropriately Dickensian. Filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill pieced together six stories about lost, abandoned or orphaned children whose tragic lives have taken a more hopeful turn. Made in conjunction with author J.K. Rowling’s Lumos foundation — which works to help children in orphanages find their families or connect with foster parents — the film is a true tearjerker.

FINDING THE WAY HOME: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Eight million children worldwide live in orphanages. Some have parents that died. Others were abandoned because they have disabilities, or were lured away from their impoverished families with a false promise of an education and regular meals. No matter the circumstance, their stories are laced with cruelty, inhumanity and, eventually, love.

I’ll choose one story to highlight: In Haiti, the devastating earthquake of 2010 rendered many families in dire straits. Prior to the disaster, 100 documented orphanages operated in the country, but that number jumped to well over 700, as unscrupulous people sought to take advantage of the tragedy. Gertrude’s family lives in a rural area stricken by drought; she sent her son Diego to an orphanage so he could live a better life. “It wasn’t a good life,” Diego says plainly. Thankfully, Diego was reunited with his family after a two-year stint in the facility. His life now isn’t easy, but he ends every day knowing his parents are nearby, loving him.

The operator of Diego’s orphanage crammed dozens of children into small rooms. They were beaten and forced to use disease-ridden latrines. When clothing, food and other foreign aid was delivered to the orphanage, the operator took it all for himself, Diego says. Alpert and O’Neill visit the orphanage, which has since been shut down; they talk to “Pastor” Jonathas Vernet, who shockingly, matter-of-factly states that orphanages are a “big business” in Haiti. On camera, he gives a tour of his new facility, proudly showing off that it has an actual toilet, filthy as it is, in a room with no lights. The filmmakers’ next stop is the government offices, to inform them of Vernet’s latest cruel venture. Officials knock on his gate. They have an empty bus, and the children are going with them.

There are five more stories in Finding the Way Home, all variations on a theme: Lonely people amidst hardship eventually find hope and love in reunion with their families, or union with new families. Brace yourself for heartbreak, inspiration and tears of melancholy joy.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The 2004 doc Born into Brothels, about the children of prostitutes in India, is cut from similar cloth — abject poverty, the suffering of youth and humanity’s tragic fringe.

Performance Worth Watching: “Pastor” Vernet is clearly too arrogant and stupid to comprehend that he’s inviting the demise of his amoral business venture by bragging about his endeavors to a documentary film crew.

Memorable Dialogue: Dima, a Bulgarian woman who adopted a boy named Isus from a dirty, overcrowded facility for abandoned disabled children, cuts to the heart of the matter: “They deserve dignity,” she says.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: I’m happy to report that Finding the Way Home isn’t a promotional piece touting how great Rowling’s charity foundation is. It’s never even mentioned during the film. Alpert and O’Neill stick to basic storytelling with this collection of vignettes, and never fall prey to manipulative tactics. Frankly, they don’t need to. When their subjects weep or share a heartfelt sentiment, the moments are simple, unvarnished truth.

These stories are by turns wrenching and revelatory. Isus never knew a life outside of his bed until Dima came along; now, he celebrates his 15th birthday at an ice cream shop with friends. A boy from rural Nepal was cajoled away from his family by traffickers, and sold to an alcoholic restaurant owner who beat him and forced him into slave labor; social workers rescued him and painstakingly walked from village to village to find his family, a task that makes finding a needle in a haystack seem easy.

When the credits roll on this hour-long doc, a painful reality sets in: There are millions of stories like these. Finding the Way Home tells a few with relatively happy endings. It illustrates the psychological suffering of children who are separated from their families, and how crassly immoral predators capitalize on suffering — something we’re seeing at the U.S.-Mexico border right now. (The film, notably, keeps any political implications buried in the subtext.) How will the many, many other stories end?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Those of us with relatively comfortable lives need to watch films like Finding the Way Home. They help us appreciate what we have, sure. But they also remind us to be compassionate, empathetic and charitable, however and whenever we can.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Finding the Way Home on HBO Now