Nada é o que Parece: O Caso Cassez-Vallarta

Once again a well crafted piece that shows quite eloquently how rotten is justice in Mexico and at the same time it awakens a real life horror, in how we all are vulnerable of powerful wicked men. No need of a ghost movie to be frightened, this examples the world terrors.

The story examines one of the most controversial cases in Mexican history, featuring Florence Cassez and Israel Vallarta, a French woman and her Mexican lover, who were accused of pursuing kidnapping for ransom and ultimately jailed, based on the false evidence by the corrupt government and its newly-established federal anti-crime agency. The process and the outcome will depend on the highest levels of Mexican and French governments, exposing massive corruption and human rights violations in the process.

The first couple of episodes are a bit challenging to follow, since they contain the chronological layout and many characters - all of which will ultimately become clear as the story unravels. My only objection is a lack of more detailed background on Florence and her brother (namely, their activities and life in Mexico prior to her arrest), which would serve as an enlightening factor in better judging her character and motivation. On the other hand, hats off to a fantastic group of Mexican journalists who helped to evaluate and expose the intricate levels of corruption, and whose courage and conviction makes them the true heroes in the whole unfortunate saga. The same goes for the production team which brought this story to light.

This documentary tries to tell the story of a French woman called Florence Cassez that happened 17 years ago in Mexico, so there's little to make the viewer care for the shady people involved.

The story spawns into numerous threads, with myriad details that make it very confusing. The documentary provides no clear answers to anything; instead, it presents conflicting statements.

One of the people interviewed for this documentary says, "there are many versions of the story", and this series makes it hard to keep track of them all.

Florence joins her brother, who does business in Mexico and is married with a Mexican woman, and she gets entangled with a Mexican con man called Israel Vallarta, who is a car thief, and a kidnapper.

Even the question whether she's married or not to Israel doesn't hold a clear answer: most of those interviewed refer to him as her husband, but she denies it.

First Florence gets kidnapped, then she's accused of abiding kidnappings perpetrated by Israel. One witness states that "everyone in Mexico believes Florence is guilty", but Florence herself claims to be a victim.

There are too many unsavory characters involved, and conflicting statements. Everyone seems to be lying, or provide a very biased account, so the facts are murky.

There are also accusations of corrupt politicians and incompetence from AFI (an organization similar to the FBI in USA), staged kidnapping, torture, la whole circus by a media thriving on scandal.

It's difficult to make sense of the story, especially because I honestly lost interest midway through episode 2, but it starts with the fact that, while doing business in Mexico, the French siblings got mixed up with some unsavory characters, and one of the Mexican investors kidnapped the French woman and her Mexican beau in retaliation for some perceived slight.

I admit not knowing anything about Florence Cassez until now, but watching this documentary today didn't make learning about this case an interesting proposition.

So I gave up watching this messy documentary mess because I couldn't care less about what happened 17 years ago to some greedy liars in Mexico.

Its a fascinating story to try to tell through a documentary. But they include so many different people, and so many different stories, that I found it difficult to follow the story at times. Perhaps it would have been better to do it over only 3 episodes or something. If you do watch this series - make sure you can do so without too many distractions, otherwise you might get lost somewhere in the middle..

But again, such a fascinating story - which I had never heard about before, as I am neither Mexican or French. But I have to admit it makes me very sceptical of visiting Mexico.. It doesn't paint a pretty picture of the country.