Actress Uma Thurman to Play Heroic Catholic Nun

(CathNews)Actress Uma Thurman plays a Catholic nun in her latest movie "Girl Soldier", the true and tragic story of 140 Ugandan girls who were kidnapped and enslaved in 1996, known as the Aboke Abductions.

Set in Uganda, the film is based on the 1996 Aboke abductions, which saw 140 schoolgirls taken from their boarding school to be used as child soldiers and sex slaves. One of the nuns who taught at the school, called Sister Caroline in Kathy Cook's book on the subject, Stolen Angels, (Sister Rachele Fassera by birth), pursued the abductors and negotiated the release of 109 of the girls. She then set about rallying the people, government, United Nations and Pope to try to end the abduction and indoctrination of child conscripts.

The book recounts the story of girls who were kidnapped from their school by Joseph Kony, leader of Uganda's Lord Resistance Army. They were forced to become soldiers and sex slaves, and would have been forgotten had it not been for their mothers and a group of interfaith clerics who fought to rescue them from their captors.

Thurman will play one of the religious, a nun by the name of Sister Caroline. She tracked the LRA members back to their camp and demanded the release of the kidnapped. 110 girls were returned to her, but Caroline refused to turn her back on the rest.

She began a crusade to rally parents, the Ugandan government, the United Nations and even the Pope to assist in rescuing all of the children living in captivity.

Thurman says she was drawn to the role in part to help shed light on the situation so many children worldwide face. "This is a film that had to get made," Thurman said. "It's beyond me that in this day and age the exploitation of child soldiers goes virtually unnoticed and unchecked by Western media."

"Soldier" will be directed by Will Raee ("1000 Ways to Die") from a script by Karen Croner ("One True Thing") and newcomer Stephanie Pinola, and is being produced by Caspian Pictures.

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