This interview reveals the ordeal of Nat­­ascha Kampusch, imprisoned in a cellar for eight years by Wolfgang Priklopil.

Utterly calm, she relates how her captor violently and brutally exerted total control over her, humiliated her, kept her hungry, forbade her even to cry in case her tears damaged the tiles and how she bided her time until she was able to escape. Natasha emerges as a startlingly self-possessed, intelligent and articulate young woman who is even able to feel compassion and insight for the sick individual who stole her childhood.

Incredibly, in the eight years her daughter was missing, her mother, Brigitta – also interviewed here – never doubted her daughter’s fierce survival instinct for a minute.