A Chibok Girls Inspired Film To Be Released On The 9th Anniversary Of Kidnapping 

‘Boy Meets Girl’ explores the disturbing reality of mass child kidnapping in Nigeria.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

The Boko Haram kidnapping of the Chibok girls in 2014 served as the inspiration for a short film that will debut on April 14th, 2023.

Boy Meets Girl centers on Musa, a 15-year-old schoolboy (Gabriel Dung), whose life is dramatically altered by meeting a little girl on a bus (Aaliyah Atazamu).

The short is directed by Kaelo Iyizoba, an accomplished Nigerian-American filmmaker whose last film, Nkemefuna, examined the fallout from the 9/11 terrorist assault in the United States.

“Over time, it becomes too easy to reduce entire lives to mere numbers. We can distance ourselves from their humanity, forgetting that they loved and were loved, just like us,” he noted while talking about the film.

In the 2021 Abuja International Film Festival, Boy Meets Girl, which was produced by Adnaan Muhammed-Ali and Conrad Johnson-Omodiagbe, took home the trophy for Outstanding Experimental Feature.

The movie reminds us of the nation’s most notorious terror incident and addresses the uncomfortable truth about the widespread kidnapping of children in Nigeria.

“The film unveils some of the insidious tactics used by extremist groups to manipulate vulnerable individuals.

“It also serves as a reminder to us all of the urgent need to address the underlying grievances that fuel terrorism in Nigeria today,” Muhammed-Ali said.

Precisely nine years after 276 girls were kidnapped from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State on April 14, 2014, Boy Meets Girl will make its YouTube premiere on April 14.

More than 100 of the girls have still not made it home despite the ferocious Bring Back Our Daughters campaign, which pushed for their release.