soniarostad

My daughter was a numerary member of Opus Dei for many years. During those years, we lost her as a family. It was like having a ghost. She stopped being cheerful, going to the countryside, riding horses, or participating in family gatherings. She didn't even want to attend her high school graduation party. Now I realize that she had been "abducted," and it wasn't so easy for her to see that she was being slowly manipulated within a strange, Spanish, shadowy group. Later, I tried to understand her, but it always felt like dealing with someone who was no longer my daughter: she was a stranger, who only occasionally shared new and strange things that had nothing to do with our family or traditions. I remember clearly telling her that one of the most notable aspects of Opus Dei was its opposition to "upward social mobility," because of its obsession with keeping maids as maids for life.

I was moved and frightened by the first two episodes of the series. The photography, framing, and camera work are excellent. The pacing and introduction of the people are also well done. I'm a visual artist, and I appreciate these details.

Also, what they show is too real. What the victims talk about (it's hard for me to call my daughter a victim too) is clearly a pattern that repeated itself in my daughter and in all the others who lived with her. Thank you for productions like this. I remember my daughter taking me to an Opus Dei center where she lived to watch a documentary about Opus Dei that reminded me of the propaganda productions of the Third Reich. The things one does for their children! But today, the documentary genre redeems itself with this production.