Journalist who was raped and held hostage for 15 months in Somalia reveals how she has forgiven her captors and is even in contact with one on FACEBOOK as her story is turned into a Hollywood movie

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout was working on a story in Mogadishu when she and photographer Nigel Brennan were kidnapped in August 2008

They were not released until November 2009 after their families paid a $600,000 ransom

Lindhout wrote a book about her experience called The House In The Sky

It will now be turned into a film

Girl With A Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara will portray Lindhout

Amanda Lindhout, the freelance Canadian journalist held captive in Somalia for 15 months, has spoken out about how she came to forgive the men who violently abused her - and even spoke to one of them on Facebook.

The comments come as the 33-year-old's best-selling memoir, The House In The Sky, was picked up by a major Hollywood studio to be adapted as a film starring Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara.

Lindhout and an Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan, were kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists outside Mogadishu in August 2008.

They were working on a story at the time and help hostage for 460 days.

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Survivor: Journalist Amanda Lindhout has spoken about coming to terms with the men who held her hostage and abused her for over a year in Somalia Amanda Lindhour (left) wrote on Facebook on June 26: 'Big news to announce! #ahouseinthesky has been optioned to film, with incredible, beautiful, actress Rooney Mara to star. Here we are last fall, when I spent a weekend in Maine with Rooney and my co-author Sara Corbett.' Ordeal: Lindhout wrote about being kidnapped along with photographer and ex-boyfriend Nigel Brennan (left) in her best-selling memoir, A House In The Sky

Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan smile in November 2009 after being freed following 15 months in captivity

Lindhout said she concept of the 'house in the sky' is the place in her mind she turned to in order to survive the torment.

'It was my memory and my imagination,' she told Bangor Daily News.



'They helped me survive.'

Not only has Lindhout survived, she says she has come to terms with the men who subjected her to endless sexual abuse.

'The reality of my experience was very violent,' she said.

'It was difficult to get through a day, and I didn’t know when, or if, it would end.

'It was almost constant abuse.'

During the very darkest time, Lindhout had what she calls a 'moment of awakening'.

'Abdujllah was abusing me, he was hurting me, and I was protecting myself and had an almost out-of-body experience,' she said.

Amanda Lindhour (right) seen here with Sara Corbett, the writer who co-authored The House In The Sky

'I found myself looking down on myself on the floor.'

Lindhout said she then realized her attacker knew only of violence.

'It’s pretty clear my captors were products of war and certainly had been shaped by that,' she says now.

'Having that understanding helped me.

'They’re human beings with painful stories of their own. It doesn’t make them innocent by any means, but they’re products of a culture of violence.'

The book reveals how the families of the kidnapped pair eventually gave up on the Canadian and Australian governments and co-ordinated their release through a private hostage negotiator.

About $600,000 went to the kidnappers and the same amount paid the negotiator's fees.

They were finally freed in November 2009.

Four and a half months later, Lindhout established the Global Enrichment Foundation, which provides higher education opportunities to women in Somalia.

Volatile nation: Somalia is desperately poor and ravaged by terrorists, leaving the country so dangerous that even seasoned journalists fear to tread

One day, Lindhout opened Facebook only to see a message written by one of her captors. He praised her for her work in Somalia.

'The fact that they know about the work I’m doing now … that I have chosen compassion, that they could see that they didn’t break me — that’s the best justice I could have,' she said.

The rights to The House In The Sky have now been picked up by Annapurna Pictures after a 'competitive pursuit'.

The company has produced award-winning films such as American Hustle, Her and Zero Dark Thirty.

Mara, who it is believed will play Lindhout, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 for her performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.