On the 18th December 1994, Alison Botha was abducted near her home in South Africa. By the end of the night, she had been raped, stabbed, disemboweled, and left for dead, but she was still alive.

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In her early years, Alison led a fairly normal life. She served as head girl at The Collegiate High School for Girls in Port Elizabeth. When she finished her education, she spent a few years traveling. Alison then returned home and found a job as an insurance broker.

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Alison is a motivational Speaker and has been speaking on the professional speaking circuit for several years, as her mission is to 'make a difference' like she has for countless people, including large business corporations, women and social groups as well as several schools, even addressing international audiences in more then 30 different countries.

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The audiences sit in rapt attention as Alison speaks of the brutally cruel torture to which she was subjected and how she has overcome the challenge of that experience by applying her own ABC - Attitude, Belief and Choice.

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Age 27, After an ordinary night out with her friends and coming home after dropping her one friend off, Alison parked her car outside her apartment and reached for her clean laundry bag, a man with a knife forced his way inside her car ordering Alison to move to a different seat, trapping her inside. He then drove her car to pick up another accomplice, making it clear that the two men had sinister plans for her. Alison’s captors, took her to a deserted area on the outskirts of town where they brutally raped her, disemboweled her by stabbing her thirty six times in the abdomen and then slashing her throat seventeen time almost decapitating her and then leaving her for dead, her attackers were Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger. Alison was still breathing. She said “I realized my life was too valuable to let go of, and that gave me the courage to survive.” 

 

Alison started to moved and only then she realized how brutal the men had injured her. While she was trying to get up, she suddenly felt something slimy and wet realising it was her intestines. She struggled trying to gathering them, putting them back inside them, noticing a piece of material laying on the ground, which was her denim shirt, she used it to pack her intestines inside it and pulling it close against her. She struggled and crawled through broken glass and dirt. She later recalled that the thought of her mom entered into her mind, and she knew she had to go on. With her other hand Alison pulled her head forward and her vision returned, temporarily. She got onto her feet and reached the road. Exhausted she laid on the road in the hope that someone would stop to rescue her. Suddenly a man named Tiaan Eilerd stopped and called an ambulance, luckily he was a veterinary student and knew how to keep her conscious until they arrived.

 

After Alison's Talk the audiences will learn to recognise the importance of attitude at all times, and they will gain insight into the power of belief in yourself as Alison shares the freedom and responsibility of making choices, no matter what happens in your life. Not everyone has the natural talent to inspire others from bad experiences but her message teaches how valuable life is and that the solutions to the challenges facing us lie within ourselves. Alison weaves her three strands of her life's philosophy - attitude, belief, choice - into an unbreakable lifeline of strength for all to hold onto as a life skill never to be forgotten.

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South African hybrid film “ALISON” is a Documentary about her ordeal that night. The file made history by becoming the first South African Film to be selected for the iconic Los Angeles based Film Festival Dances with Films.

The film tells the story of the brutal attack in 1994 in which Alison was raped, stabbed in the abdomen 36 times, disemboweled and her throat slashed 17 times and what has happened in Alison’s life since, a side to her audiences hasn’t come to know or see just yet. A story of magic, monsters and hope like none other and proof that we can be the heroes in our own stories.

Produced by Amy Nelson and directed by Uga Carlini, who steered the fairy tale inspired visual to realisation. Christia Visser stars as young Alison in the reenactment scenes. Carlini’s Towerkop Creations which specialises in female driven heroine stories is the producing film company.

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The film had won 7 awards:

Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards 2017

Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2016

Silwerskerm Festival 2016

South African Film and Television Awards 2017

World Humanitarian Awards 2016

World of Women Cinema Film Festival (WOW) 2018

Writer's Guild of South Africa Muse Awards 2017