The two sons born in captivity to hostages Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman were shown for the first time in a video posted Monday as the couple pleaded for their family’s release, asking U.S. President Barack Obama to think about his “legacy” and free them from their “Kafkaesque nightmare.”

Boyle, 33, who is Canadian, and Coleman, his 31-year-old American wife, have been held by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network since October 2012. They were kidnapped near Kabul, Afghanistan, during a backpacking trip through Central Asia.

Coleman says the video was made Dec. 3, and is surprisingly blunt in her criticism of both her kidnappers and the governments that have failed to free her family.

“We understand both sides hate us,” she says, appearing to read from a prepared script. “And are content to leave us and our two surviving children in these problems.

“But we can only ask and pray that somebody will recognize the atrocities these men carry out against us as so-called retaliation, in their ingratitude and hypocrisy. My children have seen their mother defiled.”

Both the young boys sit in Boyle’s lap during the video, fidgeting and looking off camera. At one point the elder boy starts to giggle as his father quietly hushes him. The youngest sucks on a soother. The mention of “surviving children” may mean that Coleman miscarried at some point during their four years in captivity, or that there was a third baby who died.

Coleman was five months pregnant at the time they were kidnapped and gave birth in custody. A second boy followed in 2015, delivered by flashlight in the darkness of their cell after what Boyle told his parents was a “seven-and-a-half-month surreptitious pregnancy.”

“Ta-da!” he wrote in correspondence shared with the Toronto Star. “The astonished captors were good and brought all our postpartum needs, so he is now fat and healthy, praise God.”

Boyle’s writings, delivered through intermediaries and written in his tiny penmanship, provided the first real glimpse into his family’s life in captivity.

“We are trying to keep spirits high for the children and play Beautiful Life,” he wrote.

Boyle’s parents, Patrick and Linda Boyle, believe this is a reference to Life Is Beautiful, the Italian movie in which a father protects his son from the brutalities of a Nazi concentration camp by pretending it is just a game.

Before Monday’s video, the children had never been on camera or seen in photographs.

There have been other videos of the couple, including one posted directly to YouTube four months ago in which they warned they would be killed if the Afghan government did not stop executing Taliban prisoners. The video’s release coincided with an Aug. 29 Afghan court decision that sentenced Anas Haqqani, the son of the group’s founder, to death for his role in helping to raise funds for the network.

The Haqqani network — which has a strong presence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan — is closely aligned with the Taliban and its members are among the world’s most skilled kidnappers.

In past videos, the couple have appealed to the Afghan, American and Canadian governments, since Boyle is a Canadian citizen. But this time they address only the U.S. and Afghanistan, begging the two to “reach an agreement.”

“Obama, your legacy on leaving office is probably important to you, and our lives and those of our children are to us,” Coleman says. “So please don’t become the next Jimmy Carter. Just give the offenders something so they and you can save face and we can leave the region permanently.”

Coleman is likely referring to the failed attempt by Carter in 1980 to release Americans held hostage in Iran.

To U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, she says: “They want money, power, friends. You must give them these things before progress can be made. A five-year hostage-taking is too long and indicates failure on every side.”

Boyle also speaks to the camera saying that his captors “will not settle this until they get what they’re demanding.”

Canadian Global Affairs spokesman Michael O’Shaughnessy said his government was aware of the latest video, The Canadian Press reported late Monday.

“We are deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of Joshua Boyle, Caitlan Coleman and their young children and call for their unconditional release,” O’Shaughnessy added.

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The U.S. State Department said it was reviewing the footage.

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