When a woman, who was injured in a hit-and-run, is found in a German forest with a mysterious young girl standing guard over her, we viewers are pulled into the most frightening and darkest series to ever hit Netflix.
Dear Child
This German series, Dear Child, is based on Romy Hausman’s best selling novel of the same name. It is claimed that it isn’t based on a true story, but it sure as hell reminds me of a famous American case. The six-part miniseries, directed by Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Porksen stars Kim Riedle, Naila Schuberth, Sammy Schrein, Birge Schade, Christian Beermann as father, Julika Jenkins, Haley Louise Jones, Justus von Dohnanyi, Hans Low, and Ozgur Karadeniz.
The child, Hannah (Naila Schuberth) tells the police that the woman is her mother, Lena (Kim Riedle), and gives them the woman’s blood type…which is wrong and almost kills the woman. When police investigator Aida Kurt (Haley Louise Jones) contacts the mother (Julika Jenkins) and father (Justus von Dohnanyi) of the real Lena…who has been missing for thirteen years, they are all shocked to learn that the woman in the hospital bed is not Lena. Detective Buhling (Hans Low) who had been working on the missing person case for the last thirteen years, is now working with Kurt to get to the truth, and to find and save Hannah’s little brother, Jonathan (Sammy Schrein).
We learn that Lena is really another woman who had been kidnapped, but that is all we learn because Jasmin, Hannah and Jonathan are too frightened and brainwashed to give the detectives sufficient information. The brainwashing has come from being locked inside a bunker under the complete control of a sociopath who regulates when they eat and when they are allowed to go to the bathroom. They call the man Father (Christian Beermann). When Father shows up at the bunker, Jasmine, Hannah, and little Jonathan must line up and show both sides of their hands. If they misbehave, Jasmine is mercilessly beaten up.
Each episode reveals a little bit more about the torture that the original Lena went through. It gets worse, believe me when I say that this six-part series not only had me binge watching, but physically sick to my stomach knowing that something like this happened to a young girl here in the States. Luckily for Hannah and Jonathan, there is a kindly nurse (Birge Schade) and psychiatrist (Ozgur Karadeniz) along with loving grandparents to help them heal.
Conclusion and Spoiler
We learn who the killer is at the end. And yes, I said killer because Lena and Jasmin were not the only ones hunted down to help this madman create this fantasy world of family. Kim Riedle is amazing to watch as a woman who thinks she has escaped her abductor only to learn that he is still watching her. Both Naila Schuberth and Sammy Schrein will wrench at your heart as children trying to understand that the world they were born into and lived…and the man they called father…was a lie…an abusive lie.
Observing how detectives Aida Kurt and Buhling begin the search for the truth as adversaries, who then become a kick-ass team, is worth watching the entire six episodes in one sitting.
The case that this film reminded me of had to do with Jaycee Lee Dugard. You can read about this nightmare of a case but be forewarned that it is very upsetting.
