BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

In April 2014, the world awoke to the shocking news that the terrorist group Boko Haram had kidnapped nearly 300 school-aged girls and taken them deep into the forests of Nigeria. When veteran journalist Mellissa Fung travelled to Nigeria, she discovered that the scope of the kidnappings had been vastly under-reported. Hundreds - possibly thousands - more girls had been taken against their will and forced to become child brides to soldiers and leaders of Boko Haram.

During several visits to Nigeria over four years, she sat down with the girls and their families, listening to horrific stories of capture, rape and torture, as well as escapes and excommunications. Fung also tells the stories of strong women fighting against the terrorist group: Aisha the Hunter, who moves stealthily into the forest, taking out Boko Haram with her faithful followers, and Mama Boko Haram, an Igbo woman who knows the fighters and fights to empty the forests of them and captives alike.

MELLISSA FUNG is a veteran journalist, bestselling author and filmmaker. In 2008, as a field correspondent covering Afghanistan, she was taken hostage, an experience that led to her number-one-bestselling book Under an Afghan Sky. Her story, and those of three Nigerian girls, were the subject of her first feature documentary, Captive, which premiered in 2021.