After living with relatives in fast-paced Lagos City, Nigeria, 14-year-old Amarachi returns to her home village to live with her mother Ikechi for the first time in eight years. When Ikechi learns Amarachi is pregnant due to rape, the pair begins an emotional journey to heal from their individual and collective traumas, save what is left of their estranged relationship, and learn to live as a family. THE KEEPSAKE traces the transformations of a family of women and girls determined to possess and live their lives despite the trauma they endured. This complex story traces the transformations of a family of women and girls through the subtleties of their everyday interactions. It takes place against the backdrop of a quiet village in southeast Nigeria that is steeped in tradition and Christian morals – a world alive with color and dreams that flows in tandem with nature’s gentle undulations.

In a country that neither protects girls nor delivers justice for the one-in-four girls who will be victims of sexual violence before the age of 18, the burdens of trauma, shame, healing, and continuity are left at the feet of the victims and their families. THE KEEPSAKE is a visual poem that honors and bears witness to the process and contours of healing in a country where justice, protection, therapy and rehabilitation of girls remain absent.