ESCAPE:Female Circumcision and Child Marriage in Kenya

ESCAPE is a short film about the rescue and rehabilitation of Maasai girls from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage, two practices that go hand-in-hand. The film documents the lives of several girls and the path that some are forced to take and others decide to make. Naanyu Sekut, whose age we approximated at around 13, marries a man more than 20 years her senior in a rural Maasai village. Her cousin, Seleyian Sekut, whose slender body and small stature puts her at around 10, is rescued from her husband. Others like Carolyn. live at the Tasaru Safehouse for Girls where they are guaranteed safety and an education in an urban environment. The “lucky” ones are eventually reconciled with their parents following a declaration to abandon the practice of FGM. The movie explores the tenacity of some village elders bent on continuing a deeply rooted practice and the struggle by a growing segment of the community to redefine “tradition” despite the consequences.