OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — The Sundance Institute has confirmed its 2025 fellows - in which the nonprofit supports emerging artists' independent feature films. One of the projects selected: The Homecoming, based on a true story.
- Safi Rauf, who's from Omaha, had served in the military. By 2021, through his nonprofit Human First Coalition, was working to evacuate people from Afghanistan.
- During that time, he met Sammi Cannold as he worked to help a friend's family.
- A few months after their courtship began, Rauf was taken hostage by the Taliban and held for 105 days.
- The Homecoming is based on their true story.
Continue reading for the full story, as seen on-air.
August, 2021. The United States withdrawal from Afghanistan was more than tumultuous. It was deadly, with Marine Corporal Daegan Page among those killed.
At that same time, another Millard South alum, Safi Rauf - a veteran - was in touch with thousands of families through his Human First Coalition, including Sammi Cannold's friend's family.
Rauf got them home.
"Everyone was trying to get out of Afghanistan and we were sitting in Washington, D.C. trying to do anything we could to help and it was chaos. It was pure chaos. And so, to meet someone in that kind of environment is a very crazy thing," Cannold recalled.
And yet, not as crazy as what happened next.
Cannold and Rauf quietly fell in love.
"All my siblings are married - arranged. So, for me to date somebody and then date somebody who's white?," Rauf explained of their initial challenges.
His parents, Halima and Abdul Rauf, were shocked. Though, their first meeting with Cannold was not in Omaha. Safi Rauf had traveled with his aid group to help with more evacuations.
"I ran into this crazy adventure where I went to Afghanistan and there, I was taken hostage by the Taliban. Until then, my parents didn't know about Sammi," he said.
So, there they were. He was in captivity in Afghanistan. Cannold and her future in-laws were now working together in Qatar - unsure if Rauf was even alive.
In a 2022 TED Talk Rauf explained some of what happened.
"The entire time, I feared that I might be taken in front of a firing squad at any minute. And on the 45th day, I was beaten and tortured by 11 men wielding pipes after eight days on hunger strike. I had done nothing wrong."
Rauf was falsely accused of espionage - held hostage for 105 days.
For a while, it was too raw to share too much of their story.
"But now, we're almost three years out and I think that we see the value in telling that story and sharing that story," Cannold said.
They want to bring light to Afghans' stories and they also believe that talking more about hostage and kidnapping crises could help families around the world.
The contrasts of their hardships and their highs; the two were married last year in Glenwood, Iowa.
According to societal norms, the couple can't work.
"I'm Muslim. She's Jewish. That's one intersection that we live on. And then, I was a hostage and she was trying to get me out," Rauf pointed out.
But, together, they show what's possible when you're willing to learn, to listen, to be brave and to believe.
The Homecoming doesn't yet have a release date. A stage production based on Cannold and Rauf's story is also in the works.