Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi

As other reviewers note, the case goes all over the place... but that's police work, especially in Italy, especially in the 1980s. While watching, I wanted to employ Occam's Razor: what is the simplest explanation for Orlandi's kidnapping? But in that time, in that place, it really *could be * plausible that the KGB or Vatican Bank or church pedophiles or Mafia might be responsible. Or all of them. The music video-style editing and repetition is tiresome and an insult to the seriousness of the subject matter. But as an Italian speaker, I commend the accuracy of the translation/interpretations. In any case: RIP young Emanuela Orlandi, wherever you are.

The only reason I gave this 3 stars is because of the real-life event and the case that remain unsolved. The documentary is very long with different theories every time. There is no proof of anything in the documentary. It's based on theories, speculation, shady interviews and personal belief of people highly at risk of being bias. Feels like conspiracy theory. Only positive point to the documentary is that MAYBE someone will watch it and the real-life case will actually move in the right direction. But now that it's on Netflix, chances are that even more bias information will follow and truth will never be revealed. I recommend this documentary to people who need drama in their life, people who seek conspiracy theory and people who don't care about facts. This is a 4-hour documentary that can be resume in one sentence: ''Emanuella Orlandi was kidnapped, and no one knows what happen''.

Fascinating and well done story of the disappearance of a teenage girl in Vatican City and possible involvement of the Vatican. Though much of the documentary is dubbed into English and is rather complex at times, I had no trouble following along, watching all the episodes in one binge; the Netflix way. A real life mystery that ranks with the best Netflix is true crime docs, such as these somewhat similar The Keepers, as well as American Monster and Icarus. Strongly recommended for fans of true crime and religious controversies. While covering a true story, I have never heard of this entire matter here across the Atlantic, so it was as suspenseful to me as a real life mystery. As I imagine many others in America may be unfamiliar with a story as well, I'll stop there and just encourage you to give it a chance, though you need to stick with it, as a lot of information is kind of jumbled together at the beginning. It doesn't have a lot of the biographical background American true crime shows have; the doc gets right into the story, as there is much information to sift through.

The problem with making a documentary series for an international audience is how to explain the story without explaining the intricate history of criminals, money laundering and the Vatican church. In Italy, the Vatican is more powerful than either political party is in the U. S. Its ties with money laundering go back to Hitler, and its ability to influence world politics is unfathomable to those of us who believe we live in a democracy. Is it a tedious story? Yes. Is it something every American Catholic should see? Hell, yes. As the U. S. SCOTUS acts as the Vatican's agent in removing the rights of women, as parishes all over the world are having to pay the victims of child molestation by priests, as U. S. Bishops are urging the refusal of communion to the American president who was duly elected, is it so hard to believe it would cover up the kidnapping and murder of a girl? It isn't fiction. It's horrible,

As Episode 1 of "Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi: (2022 release from Italy; 4 episodes of 55-60 min each) opens, we are in "Vatican City 2019" and a tomb is being opened in the latest attempt of finding clues of what has become of Emanuela Orlandi. We then go back in time to "22 June 1983" as then 15 yo Emanuela is off to her flute lessons. It's the last time that her family sees her... At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1. Couple of comments: let me state upfront that I had never heard of this particular case, so initially this seemed quite intriguing: what has become of Emanuela, born and raised in Vatican City, all of 0.17 square miles and total population of less than 1,000 people. What initially seems to be your standard kidnapping-for-ransom scheme then evolves into something different altogether. We get lots of talking heads (Emanuela's family, multiple journalists, others), all bringing their own perspective and speculation, until it's clear that really nobody knows what happened or didn't happen. Along the way there are multiple conspiracy theories, one crazier than the other. This mini-series is really hurt by both the pure speculations of it all, as well as the nearly 4 hour running time, which probably cut be cut in half, if not more, without losing any of the central narrative. "Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi" recently started streaming on Netflix, and all 4 episodes are now available. Even if you are a big fan of true crime documentaries (like I am), I really can't recommend this mini-series to anyone in good conscience. For that it is too long and far too speculative. Or as the saying goes: "Where's the beef?" Of course you don't have to take my word for it, so I encourage you to check it out, and draw your own conclusion.

Those reviewers who find it "confusing" should probably stick to watch Marvel movies and avoid risking a brain hernia. The movie is based upon facts, the dirty money laundering of Banco Ambrosiano/IOR, Marcinkus and Calvi's business that eventually caused the latter to "get suicided" in London, money used to finance Solidarnosc, how the Banda della Magliana was handling all dirty jobs on behalf of the Italian secret service and the Vatican...of course it's much easier to believe she was kidnapped by some random criminal rather than accepting the ugly truth about the government itself. Watch it and create your own opinion.

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.

I gave up after the end of episode 1. Complete nonsense filled in (telephones ringing for effect, old film reels going back and forth that made me want to turn it off, traffic going by Vatican City, old news reports we didn't need and so much more we don't need, etc). The viewing public is not stupid and doesn't need fluff. Just interview the people involved and GET TO THE POINT. It's a shame for the Orlandi family because instead of holding our attention, Netflix did them a great disservice by dragging it out. I'll Google the rest of the story and save myself 3 hours. Learn from these reviews and PLEASE do better in the future for the next one.

This is a mess. It keeps repeating things (and has a rewind montage that will drive you crazy by the end) and goes off on all sorts of weird tangents to make it interesting. This could have been a hour if it just told the story without all the nonsense. The main "reporter" who seems to be narrating constantly draws lines between things that are not connected and he loves saying dates/times are revealing hidden messages. This story is his bread and butter and you can tell. This is just a waste of time. And it's a compelling story on its own with out the embellishments and conspiracy theories. But instead we get a doc that throws every charlatan and fraud in to make this last longer. Frustrating and should be much better.