Sky Documentaries boards Shamima Begum documentary The Return: Life After ISIS

Sky has boarded filmmaker Alba Sotorra Clua’s feature documentary The Return: Life After ISIS ahead of its premiere in competition at the upcoming SXSW Film Festival. The Sky Original documentary has been commissioned for Sky Documentaries by Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content, Poppy Dixon, Director, Documentaries and Factual, and Jack Oliver, Head of Co-Productions. MetFilm Sales is handling worldwide sales on the title.

The powerful documentary provides exclusive access to a group of Western women who devoted their young lives to ISIS, including British recruit Shamima Begum, who fled the country with two school friends when she was just 15, and Hoda Muthana from USA who allegedly incited her followers on Twitter to support the Islamic State.

Splitting opinions in the media and the public, these women now tell their stories for the first time. The film sensitively explores the realities of the more than 60,000 ISIS brides and children stranded in Syria with no country to go back to. The Sky Original documentary will launch on Sky Documentaries and NOW TV in the Summer.

Alba Sotorra Clua’s previous projects include the documentary feature film Game Over (2015), which received the Gaudí Award from the Catalan Film Academy and Comandante Arian (2018), nominated for the Gaudí Award for Best Documentary in 2019.

The film is an Alba Sotorra Production in association with MetFilm (The Reason I Jump, Misha and the Wolves) and Ronachan Films (Escape from ISIS, The UN Sex Abuse Scandal), directed and produced by Alba Sotorra. Also producing are Vesna Cudic and Carles Torras. The film is executive produced by Sam Collyns on behalf of Ronachan Films, Poppy Dixon & Jack Oliver on behalf of Sky UK and Jordi Ambros on behalf of TV Catalonia. The deal was negotiated by Vesna Cudic on behalf of Alba Sotorra Productions and MetFilm.

Sky Documentaries is the home of world-class, real life stories from award-winning and emerging film makers, including new Sky Original documentaries, as well as acquisitions from HBO, SHOWTIME® and beyond. With a mix of feature length documentaries and limited series that challenge, provoke and entertain, the channel will explore a broad range of topics from sport and real-world controversies through to biographies of some of the world’s most famous and infamous people.

For further information, please contact: hephzibah.kwakyesaka@sky.uk / jessica.gray@sky.uk.

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About MetFilm & MetFilm Sales

Based in London’s Ealing Studios, MetFilm comprises of MetFilm Sales, MetFilm Production and MetFilm School. MetFilm Sales and MetFilm Production operate both independently and interdependently, working hand in hand with filmmakers to provide them with a complete journey under one roof – from development and production to marketing and distribution. Founded in 2017, MetFilm Sales specializes in international sales of documentary features and series. Our slate includes Sundance 2021 competition title Misha and The Wolves, Sundance 2020 Audience Award Winner The Reason I Jump, Sundance & Berlinale 2019 title Shooting the Mafia, Emmy 2019 nominated The Oslo Diaries, and a streaming hit of 2019, Last Breath.