Mother Country

Neglected as a child, Black American Shannon is swamped with debt after college and then sustains injuries in a car accident that result in job loss, chronic pain, and an inability to have children. On a second trip to Morocco with her husband, whom she married more for security than love, she notices a three-year-old girl seemingly alone in the marketplace. Her need to be a mother buries her common sense, and she kidnaps the child, bribes embassy officials to fake the necessary paperwork, and returns to the United States with little Yumna. Renamed Mira, Yumna is actually the cherished daughter of Souria, a Mauritanian woman who has already survived enslavement, trafficking, and abuse and is frantic when she cannot find her daughter. Yet Souria has limited recourse because she is in Morocco illegally. After five years, Shannon finally returns to Morocco to find Mira’s mother, with the eventual reunion revealing the stark difference between the two mothers’ lives.