A film dedicated to telling the story of the Chibok girls kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram is being premiered at the Sundance film festival this month. Waiting for Hassana tells the story of the kidnapping through the eyes of one of the girls - named Jessica - who escaped from Boko Haram. 2015 Tutu Fellow Uzodinma Iweala produced the documentary after being encouraged to do so by his mother. Waiting for Hassana is the first Nigerian production ever selected to debut at the prestigious international film festival.
Jessica was one of the 276 young women kidnapped by the terrorist group from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok. She was one of a group who managed to escape. Since then, she has committed herself to her education as a way of paying tribute to her still-abducted friends. In 2014, the teenage girls went to the school for exams, and by dawn nearly all had disappeared and the school had been burned to the ground. Jessica was one of the 57 young women who bravely managed to escape on their first night of captivity.
Iweala has seen movie success before. His powerful first novel, Beasts of No Nation, was adapted for the screen in 2015 and stars Idris Elba. You can read more about it here on the AFLI website.
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