Schatten der Wahrheit

A really tough and sad true story, not predictable and also a bit scary if you ask me.

8/10

Taking a look at what was about to leave Netflix UK,I was intrigued to spot a four-part True Crime doc that I've not heard of before,which sounded fascinating, leading to me shining a light onto the shadows.

View on the doc:

Placing the layout of the school and the quiet, sleepy town status of Katzrin in the opening episode, co-creators/(with Mika Timor) co-directors Yotam Guendelman & Ari Pines take a meticulous approach to giving each subject plenty of time to express their thoughts on the murder of 13 year old Tair Rada.

Wisely keeping the score minimal, the directors hold in close-ups the pain Shmuel and Llana have suffered from the horrific murder of their daughter Tair, with the makers allowing for silence to be held in the air during Roman's Attorney's expressing their frustrations at the courts not being willing to hear new evidence,for what they believe is a miscarriage of justice.

Matching the eye for detail shown in their interviews, the makers present the crime scene photos of Tair Rada's with a forensic skill in highlighting the huge shortcomings of the police investigation,and vast archive video footage of the police using coercion to get Roman Zdorov to confess to the murder the police are desperate to tell the public has been solved.

Using traditional True Crime CGI to present to the viewer the school grounds during Tair's final hours alive, the makers unveil horrifying recent uncovered evidence on who the murderer actually is,leading to the makers getting involved in the case and making calls to gain contact with the ex-boyfriend of the main suspect,who brings new revelations from out of the shadow.

I would have given this a very high rating if it had been properly edited.

Instead it was so unbelievably infuriatingly long and that length was caused by going over the same information again and again and again, just from a slightly different angle, long after we had very clearly understood the truth. This 'mini series', could and should have been a very powerful and addictively watchable 2 part documentary. The story is so incredible and so unbelievably unjust that it didn't need sensationalising. It just needed to be told. Instead it got very boring in parts and I only watched it all because my partner wanted to. I would have skipped to the end.

I can only think that they made it so long for commercial reasons. They didn't do the subject justice in my opinion.

The basic story of 'Shadow of Truth' is a sadly familiar one: faced with a horrible crime, the police find some unfortunate in the wrong place at the wrong time and bully a logically worthless confession out of them that nonetheless proves sufficient to convict. Meanwhile, stories circulate about who really did it; but a second false accusation is no way to lift a first one. The interesting thing here is that when this series was first made, the initially accused still languished in gaol; the extra final episode covers his eventual appeal. The story is compelling although it could have been told with a tighter edit. Meanwhile, who actually killed Tair Rada remains unknown.

I never knew about this case and I found this documentary by chance. I love crime series and all I can say is that 'Shadow of truth' is worth watching. The case looks simple at first, a tennage girl is murdered in the toilet at school, but it turns out is more complex. The crime was brutal. There are some very graphic photos from the crime. And there are 2 theories, the first one more plausible but full of holes and the second one more weird and insane but at the same time more probable. The crime itself was insane so I will go with the second theory. 'Shadow of truth' is very well documented with a lot of footage from the investigation, interrogations and family archive. It is a sad story in the end and I feel so sorry for the victim's family. I highly recommend this documentary for those who like true crime series.