Film to show African women's triumph over horrors of their pasts

'The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe,' a film about four remarkable African women who overcame atrocities, is set to debut at the Sydney Film Festival this Thursday.

The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe tells the harrowing stories of four women's survival and the triumph of their improbable stage show.

The women fled from different parts of Africa in order to escape violence and sexual abuse.

They found a safe haven in Australia but still they held their pain silently within them - until they decided to join a theatre group and speak out.

They bravely decided to tell their stories in a play that was a surprise hit that travelled from Sydney to Europe and is now a documentary.

Three of the women spoke to SBS News.

Aminata

Aminata was just 16 when she was kidnapped by a violent, drug-crazed rebel leader during the Sierra Leone civil war in the 1990s. She became a sex slave for many months before escaping.

She says she has used her experience to speak on behalf of the other women who are still there.

"The women who are still in refugee camps and have gone through violence in war,” she said.

Aminata is now a happily married mother to two young children, an ambassador for Australia to the United Nations and has also set up the Aminata Maternal Health Foundation.

Sierra Leone has the highest infant mortality rate in the world and the foundation aims to create more maternal health facilities, in a country that has next to none, to give mothers and babies a better chance of survival.

Yordano

As a small child, Yordano watched her father kill her mother. Left to fend for herself at five years of age she was picked up by the Eritrean army to be trained as a child soldier.

For the next 15 years she suffered violence and sexual abuse, but the play made her confront her demons and she is now writing a book about her life.

Yordano said she suffered "all kinds of abuse" but had now found her voice.

"[I am] now at the second stage of my life where I am developing myself," she said.

The play also helped her realise how resilient she was.

Rosemary

Rosemary grew up in Kenya with a dark secret: she was abused by members of her own family for several years.

The African community in Sydney call Rosemary a “living treasure” and she has worked for many years with the NSW Police Force in western Sydney as a community liaison officer.

She said the play, and now documentary, had not just helped refugees who had been abused, but all people.

Source: SBS News

"I get stopped in the street by people of all sorts of nationalities, including Australians. They say it happened to them and the play has given them the courage to come out and talk about it,” she said.

The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe is written, directed and produced by Ros Horin and took five years to make.

It premieres at the Sydney Film Festival on Thursday, June 9.