Many creatives have tried to document the kidnapped Chibok Girls event of 2014, from Uzodinma Iweala’s 2017 short documentary Waiting for Hassana, a harrowing account of one girl’s escape from captivity and a heart-wrenching lament for her closest friend Hassana, to Uche Aguh’s 2016 short film with the on-the-nose title Sambisa.

And now, American cable company HBO is rendering its own input through a documentary film titled Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram. Produced in partnership with BBC2 and ARTE France, the documentary tells the story of the girls’ time in captivity and follows their lives over the past year since their release.

Granted exclusive access to the freed girls who reside in a government safe house in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, the film shows how these young women are adapting to life after their harrowing experience and how the Nigerian government is handling their re-entry into society. Stolen Daughters also chronicles the girls’ reunions with family who they have not seen since they were kidnapped, as well as them processing their traumatic ordeal through schooling and counselling. The film showcases how the group of girls, known as The Chibok Girls, are required to live in a protected environment, where contact with the outside world is limited, and documents the girls as they move on to a residential, government-sponsored program at the American University of Nigeria.

Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped by Boko Haram is directed and produced by Karen Edwards and Gemma Atwal, and executive produced by Fiona Stourton.

Bernard Dayo

When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.