A Life Too Short The Isabella Nardoni Case (Isabella: o Caso Nardoni) is the latest true-crime documentary on Netflix, that sheds light on the infamous 2008 case that shook Brazil. Micael Langer and Cláudio Manoel direct it with a runtime of about 1 hour and 44 minutes. It is said to be based on the books written by Ilana Casoy and Rogerio Pagnan.
The film features interviews of people associated with the investigation of the case and the victim’s family including Ana Carolina Oliveira, Jose Orcanjo Oliveira, Waldir Souza, Luciena Ferrari, Rogerio Pagnan, Renata Pontes, Sergio Vieira, Francisco Cambranelli, Flavia Rahal, Ricardo Molina and several others.
A Life Too Short The Isabella Nardoni Case Review
In 2008, a 5-year-old girl named Isabella Nardoni was thrown out through the window of her father Alexandre, and stepmother’s (Anna Carolina Jatobá) apartment on the sixth floor in São Paulo. Even though all the apartments have a safety net, it was found to be cut and thus raised suspicion of murder. Despite falling from quite a height, Isabella was found slowly breathing for life but passed away by the time they reached the hospital.
Alexandre and Anna were the only ones in the apartment after they had come home from grocery shopping and left their other two kids in the car. However, the father claimed to have seen a burglar in a black shirt, who threw his daughter. But no sign of breaking in or stealing was found by the investigators. Therefore, suspicions grew towards him and Anna, as Isabella was under their care and in the apartment when the incident happened. Also, their testimonies didn’t match accurately.
While there have been a few tragic cases where children have accidentally fallen out of their balconies, what made this case different was that it was a deliberate act, by making a hole in the safety net. At first, the media reported it as an accident but as the investigation proceeded, media outlets concluded that the father and stepmother are the sole culprits. Such reporting and major highlighting of the case in media made almost everyone in the country aware of it and enraged at the infanticide.
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Even before the investigators could rule out other scenarios, the media trial seems to have played a big role in convicting the couple. Even if there were any possibility of an intruder, there wasn’t enough evidence and the biggest question comes to mind – what were the parents doing then? If anything, they would have fought off the intruder or there could be signs of a confrontation of some sort but nothing was found.
The biggest question that remains a mystery is why did they even do that? What was the reason to do this to one’s child? The documentary here fails to investigate further, the kind of relationship that Alexandre, Anna and Ana Oliveira shared. They only ask her one time about her suspicions on the dad or stepmother but she only seems surprised that they could do that. The documentary mainly focuses on what the leading investigators had to say about the whole case and the public pressure might have contributed to convicting them faster.
The film is structured in a suspenseful way that grabs your attention but doesn’t go beyond the surface level. It mostly leans towards the investigators, on whose books the film is based on, and shows that they did their best and did the right thing. Meanwhile, many questions like the family dynamics, why the parent’s divorced, any fight about Isabella among the Parents, their relationship with the neighbours, where were the other 2 kids at the time or why were they left in the car etc leaves hanging.
The creators want to show how the media trial created such a hostile situation in the country that people were bloodthirsty to punish Alexandre and Anna, even if they weren’t guilty. But then they do the same thing by making a sensational film that touches the tragic surface but doesn’t question the reason or any other possibility behind it.
Rating: 2.5/5
A Life Too Short The Isabella Nardoni Case is currently streaming on Netflix.
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