The epic true story of love and adventure that changed the world.

Written by Jonathan Wakeham The Nile will be directed by Susanna White.

The Nile is an intimate story of a life-changing love between two people from opposite ends of the empire. Set against the backdrop of the scramble for Africa by European nations, and the fight against the tyranny of the slave trade the story combines romance with exciting action and suspense; this is not a traditional costume drama but a thrilling contemporary movie for a mainstream audience.

It's 1860, and Samuel Baker is widowed, lonely and frustrated. His life at home is in ruins, and his dreams of becoming an explorer abroad have been dashed by the Royal Geographical Society: Sam is undoubtedly capable and daring, but he's socially uncomfortable and awkward, and unsuited to the Society's political games.

On a visit to Vidin, on the Danube (then part of the Turkish Empire), he chances upon an auction of white slaves. Sam is horrified — slavery is banned in England. Sickened by the spectacle of human beings sold like cattle, Sam is about to leave when there's a commotion back stage. And then a young woman is brought onto the stage. Pale, terrified, beautiful, She stares defiantly in to the crowd, as if daring anyone to buy her.

Her name is Florenz Szas. She is Hungarian, she is eighteen years old, and she has been imprisoned in a harem since the age of five, when her parents' village was attacked and burned by a peasant army, and she was the only survivor.

Not for the first time, or the last, Sam acts entirely on impulse. He bribes the servants to let him take Florenz away. Under the cover of darkness, and pursued by the Pasha's armed guards, he escapes with her across the Danube, and their life together begins.

The Nile is their story: how these two extraordinary people, both outcasts from their own worlds, discover a new world together as they search for the source of the Nile. It's also a journey of selfdiscovery: Sam is a rich Victorian gentleman, while Florenz is a foreigner, without family or home. He's happy to risk his life for her, but will he risk his place in society?

It's a thrilling, perilous adventure, as they battle disease, disaster and a villainous slave trader. But it's also an inspiring one, as they brave terrible dangers together with breathtaking courage, resourcefulness and love. And above all it's the true story of two people who set out to find the source of a river, and found each other on the way.