Every second of it felt so real. Her pictures, her videos of childhood accompanied the detailed account which Netflix has provided us. The vivacity of the problem has followed me every second, in a way more intense than any other thriller did before. In fact, I can’t even watch thrillers. But this was a documentary. A crime documentary series. And it made all the difference.
A 14 year old girl was taken away from a place in Rome. A Vatican citizen. A rather distinct citizenship type. It took days and weeks for the family to understand what they were coping with. And the communications from Pope himself. Is it only her immediate family which seeks to find a lost girl? What happens to the other people? What do we feel for each other, really? And what keeps us together? Throughout the series, I felt dreadfully tied into a unit of attachment, labelled, organised and controlled so well.
It had been the journalists who went the furthest in her search. In a country like mine, where there are so many unknowns, it seems to matter less. Emmanuelle Orlandi. It came at the end of the documentary that she was taken to London. After years of drugs, an infinite amount of thought control. Sex always goes with drugs. And rape passes for sex in the world of sick men in power.
Out of all the other ‘disappearances’ in Italy, this one seems to have marked the history of society for so long. I feel so uncomfortable with the word ‘disappearance’ as it means nothing. Even the critical narration hides things. Was she a ‘girl’ or a ‘child’? It’s so difficult to become a woman in some cultures. That’s exactly where they cut you. It’s shameful for anybody, for me, to believe that a person could be kept as a prisoner in London, in the very city I lived for so long. She must be 39 now. And she could be alive. Why her? Why that school of music? Does she have Facebook? I’m curious to know.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/ca00ZHJWKuA
Melis Menent 
Leave a comment