Based on the real-life experiences of Mende Nazer, the story unfolds as twelve-year-old Malia, daughter of champion wrestler Bah, is abducted from her Sudanese village in the Nubar Mountains by pro-government Arab militia and sold into slavery to a woman in Khartoum, who beats her for touching her daughter. After six years she is sent to London, where her name is changed, but her miserable life of servitude continues. Her passport is taken and she is told that her father will die if she goes to the authorities. Fortunately she meets a sympathetic person who seems to offer her the hope of escape and reunion with Bah ,back in Sudan. For all the film's optimism an end title states that there are around 5,000 'slave' workers currently in Britain.
Acting
Wunmi Mosaku's eyes do what dialogue cannot.
Direction
Range refuses to aestheticize suffering—brutal restraint.
Director
Gabriel Range
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mende Nazer's real memoir sold 100,000+ copies and helped change UK law on domestic worker visas.
The film deliberately contrasts Sudan's sun-scorched vistas with London's gray anonymity—both prisons, differently lit.
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