A Garota Desaparecida do Vaticano

A decent documentary from Netflix on a very interesting and mysterious case. The lives of a simple family and an innocent girl, Emanuela Orlandi, changed forever in 1983. The doco presents some valid theories that could explain the disappearance. It became explosive and mind-blowing when they showed the Vatican's secret political aims and money laundering. What is more amazing is how the Pope was very likely aware of the truth behind this innocent girls disappearance.

I did find certain parts hard to follow due to having to match a lot of the English subtitles to the video content. They rushed through some parts and those parts covered a lot of key content which I had to rewind to try piece together to understand it. They might have been able to shorten the series by 1 episode as well I feel by introducing the new theories or information a little earlier.

I feel the last episode sums up this event well. The Vatican clearly had a lot of the answers to Emanuela's disappearance but chose to protect the Church and sacrifice the life of an innocent girl. I feel the childhood friend could have also shared her info a lot earlier about Emanuela being bothered by a senior person from the Vatican. She selfishly waited so many years to shed light on advances made on Emanuela. This might have led to a breakthrough but too much time has passed now. It is quite evident her kidnapping was a power move to blackmail the Vatican. I had so many questions and really wondered where she was and what happened to her??? Sadly I feel it was something sinister and dark that the Vatican will never disclose.

An extraordinary documentary about how The Vatican covered up the disappearance of one of their own. I thought I knew a lot about The Church's corruption, turns out covering up hundreds of years of paedophilia was just the beginning. Their links to organised crime, international political corruption, potential human trafficking are all on show. However at the centre, is a real, grieving family who dedicated their lives to this organisation and still have no answers, 40 years on. Every person needs to know this story. Especially every Catholic.

If you thought the British Royal Family was a mess, Trump's America a ridiculous reality show, and the circumstances around JFK's death a puzzle, welcome to the Vatican!

Very long and drawn out but unfortunately is exactly what this poor family have had to endure for most of their lives. One review thought it was one sided but when the Vatican have refused to comment, take part, provide any other facts or show the slightest bit of compassion to this dignified family it can only lead to the obvious conclusion. The church can no longer hide these dreadful crimes and say no comment without defending themselves. This is the real reason populations are deserting the churches. Too much of their abhorrent behaviour has come to light. So many are no longer sheep but some have been lambs unwittingly to a miserable slaughter. They all need justice.

I have ranked over1200 documents and films and reviewed dozens of them in IMDB. I will tell you that this was the most striking documentary for me thus far.

I do not get why some people complain about this documentary being far too long. Particularly this one covers the story from 1982 to 2019. It reviews all the available credible evidence with the elucidated documentation and testimony of the witnesses. Any less would be harder to ascertain.

Ever since its inception, the foundation of the Vatican, a self-governing nation-state, surrounded by secrecy. One of its priorities is the controlled disbursement of information to the world. After the 2018 - 2019 leaks of Vatican banks' involvement with the Italian Mafia, journalists were able to get a small glimpse of the tirade and the culture of corruption inherent in the bowels of the organization.

This documentary exposes some of these facts and does great justice to the family of Orlandi who have been fighting to find their daughter for the past 40 years. This is a must-watch.

Let's get rid of one aspect upfront: as several reviews remark, the documentary drags a little here and there; could've been 3 episodes maybe? Yes probably.

But - is this really the point?

No, I done think so. This is a tragic story and had to be told; and re-told over and over again.

The documentary has the big merit of laying on the table all the facts and the underlying theories, from the most credible to the obviously fake, behind the Orlandi case in a rather objective and lucid manner.

And while, as expected, the documentary offers no culprit, it leaves the viewer with a well documented certainty: whatever the truth is, there is only one knowing it: the Vatican. And the Vatican keeps hiding it; and this is an insult to the family, to the justice system and to their faithfuls.

Considering the huge cost in terms of reputation damage this is causing to the Vatican, the benefit of doing it must be bigger. So it must be VERY big.