The film 'Two Daughters'  is the story of two ordinary families caught up in an almost unimaginable situation:

Gabriella, the six-year-old daughter of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe held unjustly in Iran has spoken of wanting her “mummy home for Christmas” in a powerful new Amnesty International video made to highlight the plight of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow detained UK-Iranian national Anoosheh Ashoori. 

Gabriella Ratcliffe appears in the 10-minute video - called   alongside Elika Ashoori, 34, daughter of the retired 66-year-old engineer arbitrarily detained in Iran in inhumane conditions since August 2017.  

Ashoori and Zaghari-Ratcliffe have both received grossly unfair trials on trumped-up national security-related charges, and the two families have joined forces to campaign for the pair’s freedom.

The Two Daughters film - which says it is about one daughter with a mother who is “very well known” and one “whose father is less so” - shows Elika and Gabriella discussing what they miss most due to their parent’s absence. Elika says she especially misses her father on birthdays and at Christmas, while Gabriella most misses her mother at nightimes, when she “cries”. 

Gabriella, who was 22 months old at the time of her mother’s arrest in April 2016, returned to Britain last year to be reunited with her father Richard Ratcliffe, who has mounted a high-profile campaign for his wife’s release. In the video, filmed last month at the Ratcliffe family home in north London and the Ashooris’ home in south London, Gabriella is seen making a large Christmas card for Boris Johnson containing a request for the Prime Minister to help secure her mother’s freedom. Decorated with a Santa hat, and with a giant B and J in “Boris Johnson” picked out in bright colours, Gabriella’s card bears the message:

“Dear Boris Johnson, please can you bring my mummy home for Christmas. She has been good. When she comes back I want to cuddle her first and then go to the toy shop with her. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Love Gabriella. xxx”