American filmmaker Brozzi Lunetta has made a feature film which he hopes will help reunite him with his missing daughter more than a decade after she was allegedly abducted by her mother.
Reya, named after the now 11 year-old girl, will premiere in Stockholm next month. It tells a fictional story of a private investigator and his daughter who disappeared 20 years earlier.
Lunetta’s own daughter is reported to have been abducted from the US by her mother Camilla Ellefsen, now 40, in 2002, during an acrimonious custody dispute. According to Australian newspaper the Herald Sun , he was awarded sole custody of Reya after she failed to comply with a court order.
Ellefsen travelled to Australia via Norway and India, arriving in Perth in August 2003. Despite a number of possible sightings since then, the whereabouts of the Norwegian woman and her daughter are still unknown, although Mr Lunetta believes she is living in Queensland.
Ellefsen is thought to have escaped arrest on at least one occasion.
The Australian Federal Police now claim Reya and her mother have returned to Norway but Lunetta is dubious.
“There were tonnes of proof that she entered Australia from India into Perth but there’s no proof whatsoever that she left.”
The filmmaker says he no longer believes the Australian police will find Reya but he hopes Reya will raise awareness.
He told media agency News Limited:
“It’s my way to use a fictional tale to get the story out there again, to remind people that my daughter is still missing. Perhaps if we could get Camilla’s face out there it would lead to new information.”
He added:
“Reya’s birthday [last June] and the ten-year anniversary of her abduction were incredibly difficult. I’m holding on but it’s been a pretty exhausting experience.”
He insisted:
“I just want to be a part of my daughter’s life and for her to know she has this incredible family waiting for her. I was never looking for sole custody. It’s always been about giving her more love not less love.”
Mr Lunetta has since remarried and now lives in Norway.
