100 Women - Immersed in Maria's story

As part of the BBC's 100 Women season a new virtual reality programme, Trafficked has been developed by Owain Rich and Charlie Newland. It uses testimony from Maria, a single mother trafficked from Nicaragua to Mexico. She spoke to journalist Lourdes Heredia and that interview formed the basis of Trafficked.

Hannah Khalil donned the headset to experience Trafficked and shares her thoughts.

I felt a tinge of nerves as the headpiece was tightened around my eyes shutting out the light, and the headphones placed over my ears blocking out the sound: I’d never done VR before. And I’m a bit claustrophobic – was I going to have to stop before the end?

I was about to watch – is that the right term for VR? Be immersed in? – the world of Maria, a young woman who has been trafficked from Nicaragua to Mexico. To be clear we – me – the headset wearer isn’t watching, we ARE Maria: spoken to, looked at, in her body. We hear her voice too narrating bits of her story from time to time. But to everyone else in the virtual world I was Maria.

This made the whole thing completely engrossing – no danger of claustrophobia for me, I was too busy looking around at this world, this sad life. But it was also at times frustrating, because despite being Maria and being talked to and looked at, I couldn’t respond to those around me.

As a woman you are trained to be alert and careful. So this – Maria’s story, a story that we learn at the end if horrifyingly common in Mexico, really tapped into my own primal fears – for myself and the people I love.

It’s an unnerving and transporting eight minutes, quite unlike anything else I’ve experienced before. I know VR is often used for computer games, but in this context as an educational, informative drama tool it offers so much. A cousin to theatre, film and radio drama, the difference is that VR is truly immersive in a way those relatives are not. It’s not possible for your audience member to opt out or switch off or look at Twitter. It demands your full attention. And I wonder if that key difference will give VR an important role to play in the future drama as well as in the world of gaming. 

• Watch a non-VR, 360 video version of the story Trafficked on YouTube (please note: scenes of threatened and actual violence mean this is only suitable for people over 18)
• Read Experiencing BBC World Service's Virtual Reality 'Trafficked'
• Find out more about 100 Women