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Give Me Back My Daughter is a 2025 drama film starring Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Gabourey Sidibe and Cadence Reese. It was released by Lifetime on April 5, 2025. The movie follows the life of a single mother, Renee, who fights desperately to get her daughter back home from Child Protective Services after losing her cutody.
The question floating between viewers of the film is inevitably - is Give Me Back My Daughter based on a true story? While the film has been inspired by real-life cases, Give Me Back My Daughter isn't based on one person's story.
Written by Xavier Burgin and directed by Kelley Kali in association with Swirl Film Studios, this tear-jerker has been well-received by viewers and critics, earning it a 7.8 rating on IMDb.
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Kelley Kali is also known for her directorial work in I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking) (2021), Kemba (2024) and Jagged Mind (2023).
Premise of Give Me Back My Daughter
After having lost her job, single mother Renee (Gabourey Sidibe) and her daughter Imani (Cadence Reese) are left homeless.
In her desperate quest to find employment to continue independently supporting herself and her daughter, Renee attends a job interview leaving Imani in her car. Upon returning to the vehicle, Renee is arrested, and Imani is taken away from her custody by Child Protective Services.
The rest of the film follows a relentless Renee, who will stop at nothing to bring her daughter back home to her. She picks up odd jobs to provide a home for Imani. As she goes in and out of family court sessions, she realizes the amount of support she's receiving from her loved ones who stand by her through all of it, even opening their homes to her.
The unwavering support from people around her helps the sheltered Renee come to terms with the idea that it's okay to seek help from others sometimes, and that one doesn't have to go through life alone.
Watch the trailer for Give Me Back My Daughter
What does the film try to tell us?
Director Kelley Kali created this compelling tale to highlight the struggles of families whose children are wrongly taken away from them by Child Protective Services across the US.
Give Me Back My Daughter takes its viewers through court sessions, foster homes and the unwavering support of family and loved ones through such ordeals.
Gabourey Sidibe, in an interview with NBC New York on April 2, 2025, opened up about her personal struggles with being taken away from her parents' custody by CPS as a child.
She said that having been through multiple family court sittings and watching her parents fight for her and her brother, she could relate to her character in the film. She recently became a mother to twins and could resonate with a mother's undying need to protect her children.
Give Me Back My Daughter is now available to stream on Lifetime.
