“Stolen Girl is a riveting true-life thriller that exposes the heartbreak and determination of a single mother as she fights to recover just one of the 1100 children abducted from America every year,” says director James Kent. “It is full of the most profound and universal emotions: fear, vulnerability, determination, betrayal and astonishing courage.”
In Stolen Girl, director James Kent and screenwriters Rebecca Pollock and Kas Graham retrace a mother’s long search for her stolen daughter, not as a procedural, but as a meditation on maternal silence, fractured systems, and the contours of hope stretched thin.
Inspired by the harrowing true story of Maureen Dabbagh, an American mother whose daughter was abducted by her ex-husband in 1993 and taken to the Middle East, the film transcends thriller tropes, offering a portrait of grief that drifts between continents and courtrooms, between the moment of loss and the ache of memory. Every frame pulses with absence, every scene asks what identity remains when the bond of motherhood is ripped and stitched across borders.
Maureen’s daughter, Nadia, was taken overseas during a court-approved visitation. With no extradition treaty between Syria and the U.S., Maureen faced a legal dead end. Her journey spanned 17 years, involving private investigators, media outreach, and eventually training as a child recovery agent herself.
The film doesn’t just chronicle the search—it explores the psychological toll, the moral ambiguity of rescue missions, and the resilience required to navigate international systems.
The screenplay, written by Rebecca Pollock and Kas Graham, channels this real-life ordeal into a suspenseful yet emotionally grounded narrative.
Rebecca Pollock and Kas Graham approached the screenplay for Stolen Girl with a blend of emotional fidelity and thriller pacing, drawing directly from the true story of Maureen Dabbagh’s 17-year search for her abducted daughter. Their writing process was shaped by several key choices:
- Dual Perspective: By introducing Robeson, a former Marine and child recovery agent, they created a moral counterpoint to Maureen. His tactical pragmatism contrasts with her emotional drive, allowing the script to explore ethical ambiguity.
- Global Scope, Intimate Stakes: The screenplay moves across continents—Ohio, Beirut, Italy—but always returns to Maureen’s internal landscape. The tension is both geopolitical and deeply personal.
- Realism with Compression: While inspired by real events, they compressed timelines and dramatized certain elements to maintain cinematic momentum. The result is a story that feels authentic without being documentary-like.
- Collaborative Refinement: Pollock and Graham are long-time writing partners, known for their ability to balance character depth with genre structure. Their previous work (Last Passenger, Expecting Love) shows a similar blend of emotional stakes and narrative propulsion.
Rebecca Pollock and Kas Graham’s collaboration with director James Kent on Stolen Girl was built on a shared commitment to emotional authenticity and narrative precision. While direct quotes from the trio haven’t surfaced yet, their creative partnership has been well-documented across multiple projects:
- For Stolen Girl, Kent directed from their screenplay, which dramatises Maureen Dabbagh’s real-life search for her abducted daughter. The film’s tone, equal parts thriller and emotional odyssey, reflects Kent’s sensitivity to psychological nuance and Pollock & Graham’s layered writing.
- All three are known for balancing genre with emotional depth: Kent’s work on Testament of Youth and The Aftermath shows his affinity for trauma and resilience, while Pollock & Graham’s scripts often explore moral ambiguity and maternal strength.
Their collaboration seems to hinge on a mutual respect for emotional truth over spectacle, crafting stories that resonate beyond plot mechanics
James Kent is a British director known for his emotionally resonant storytelling and elegant visual style. Originally a documentary filmmaker, Kent transitioned into drama with a keen sensitivity to character and historical nuance. His breakout feature, Testament of Youth (2014), adapted from Vera Brittain’s memoir, showcased his ability to blend intimate emotion with sweeping period detail. He followed this with The Aftermath (2019), a postwar drama starring Keira Knightley, which further cemented his reputation for crafting layered, atmospheric narratives. In 2025, Kent directed Stolen Girl, a thriller inspired by the true story of Maureen Dabbagh’s search for her abducted daughter. Collaborating with screenwriters Rebecca Pollock and Kas Graham, Kent brought a restrained intensity to the film, focusing on maternal silence, moral ambiguity, and the emotional toll of international justice. His work often explores trauma, resilience, and the quiet spaces between dialogue—where meaning lingers. Kent’s background in both documentary and drama allows him to navigate fact and feeling with equal precision, making him one of the UK’s most quietly compelling directors.
Rebecca Pollock is a British screenwriter and theatre artist whose work spans emotionally charged dramas, biopics, and genre thrillers. A founding member of the Shady Dolls Theatre Company, Pollock has written and directed plays performed across the UK and Europe, including the sci-fi piece 252AM (After Man), which premiered at VAULT Festival with support from Arts Council England. Her screenwriting career includes projects for Netflix, NBCUniversal, and EOne, with her feature Stolen Girl (2025)—co-written with longtime collaborator Kas Graham—drawing acclaim for its blend of suspense and emotional depth. Pollock’s screenplay for Betty Ford was featured on the Black List, with Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson attached, while Book of Ruth and May Savidge continue her exploration of complex female protagonists. Known for her poetic sensibility and narrative precision, Pollock crafts stories that pulse with psychological truth and social resonance, often navigating themes of identity, resilience, and systemic failure.
Kas Graham is a UK-based screenwriter, editor, and visual storyteller whose work often explores emotional complexity through genre frameworks. Born in Norfolk, Graham studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, where his early interest in visual composition evolved into a multidisciplinary career. He began in development at New Line under Illeen Maisel and was later mentored by South African screenwriter Shawn Slovo through the Guiding Lights scheme. Graham has written screenplays for Oscar-nominated Polish director Łukasz Karwowski and frequently collaborates with Rebecca Pollock, with whom he co-wrote Stolen Girl (2025). His writing blends psychological depth with narrative propulsion, often focusing on maternal resilience, moral ambiguity, and systemic failure. Beyond screenwriting, Graham is an award-winning video director and photographer, and he teaches film editing at Central Film School London. His projects span biopics (Betty Ford), historical dramas (The Book of Ruth), and emotionally charged thrillers, reflecting a commitment to stories that pulse with truth beneath the surface.
