Netflix just released the movie The Guilty on its platform. Is it based on a true story?
A man in an emergency centre, a woman who pretends to talk to her child so as not to arouse the suspicions of her kidnapper… Such is the synopsis of The Guilty, just released on Netflix. Completely plausible, this one seems straight out of a true story , but is it really the case?
At the origin of this film, in which Jake Gyllenhaal plays the title role, there is Den Skyldige , a Danish film released in 2018. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Equalizer, Shooter, tir d’élite ), The Guilty is a remake of this Nordic thriller .
Breathtaking, the model and its remake tell the story of an employee of an emergency center (the equivalent of 112) confronted with an extremely complicated situation.
Because by picking up his phone to receive a call, the man in question understands that his interlocutor is being kidnapped and that she is pretending to speak to her daughter to signal her distress .
He must then use all his cunning and all his composure to try to find and save the caller in distress.
If The Guilty is based on a Danish film, is the Danish film based on a true story? According to Variety, Gustav Möller (the director of Den Skyldige ) would have had the idea to make his film while listening to the famous successful podcast Serial .
Interviewed by the American media in 2018, he said:“That was the main inspiration my co-writer and myself ”. In this podcast (also very addictive), it is about crime in a high school, and each episode adds its share of information that changes our perception of the people who testify.
Another source of inspiration:an authentic recording of an emergency call, in which a woman being kidnapped speaks in a coded way to her interlocutor to give him information.
This news item is indeed very close to the scenario of The Guilty which is therefore, at least partially, based on a true story !
