The year is 1887. Twenty-three-year-old Nellie Bly goes to New York, determined to establish herself as a serious journalist at any cost. However, life in the city is more difficult than she imagined, and no newspaper wants a female reporter. In desperation, Nellie comes up with an irresistible offer for The World's front page: a true report from the women's asylum on Blackwell's Island, where she wants to get there by feigning madness. That's the only way he can find out how true the stories about the inhumane conditions there are. The owner of the diary, Joseph Pulitzer, is intrigued and promises Nellie that he will see to it that she gets out after a short time.
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However, when the doors of the asylum close behind the young undercover journalist, she finds herself in a place full of horrors where cruelty reigns that she could never have imagined. Cold, isolated and hungry days of fear and anxiety reawaken in her the traumatic events of her childhood. She came to the asylum voluntarily - but will she ever get out?
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Mad, an extraordinary portrait of a woman who was ahead of her time is a story about the search for truth that changed the world.
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THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES