'The Search' Review: Paulette Gebara Farah's chilling decade-old disappearance gets new perspective in Netflix show
Spoilers for Netflix's 'The Search' aka 'La Busqueda'
Netflix's 'The Search' is a dramatized retelling of one of the most chilling cases in Mexico's history. On May 22, 2010, four-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah suddenly disappears from her room in the posh neighbourhood of Huixquilucan, State of Mexico. Given the influence of the people involved in the case, it was immediately handed over to the Attorney General's office.
From the very beginning, the case was botched up one way or the other. We meet the Attorney General Alberto Bazbaz (Dario Yazebk), a very eager-to-please official who is routinely mocked by the press via caricatures. Alberto must work to repair his reputation. And so he appoints his deputy Castillo (Adrian Ladron) to take over the case.
As a special needs girl, it was impossible for Paulette to have ventured out by herself. Now how does she go missing in the middle of the night without no one being able to trace her? Her parents Mauricio Gebara and Lizette Farah and her two nannies Erika and Martha Casimiro cannot account for her.
Soon enough, it is made evident that the case is being influenced in Mauricio's favour via Castillo. That is worsened by the fact that the Attorney General has himself blamed the mother very early on into the investigation. As is routine in cases like this, legal authorities and the media are quick to pounce on the mother and blame her for the unfortunate accident, if not directly then through calculated content that is meant to sell for the network but hurts her public image.
There are moments like this that are infuriating. One such event is the press conference conducted by the Attorney General shortly after Paulette's body is found. At this conference, Alberto makes it public that they have deduced that Lizette suffered from personality disorders — only one of the many unfavourable things to be said about her.
Even as the Attorney General's office and the media continue to incriminate Lizette in the investigations, there is journalist Carolina (Regina Blandón) who sets on her own path to uncover the truth.
After an investigation that lasted two months, the Paulette case was closed without any culprits. The highly dramatized Netflix series is undoubtedly hard-hitting as it explores the investigation that was conducted by the Attorney General's office.
At the end of it, the mystery remains — just as it does in real life — how did Paulette die? Was she really planted? In that case, who killed her and moved her body to the foot of the bed? And these are questions that will never be answered owing to a botched-up investigation by corrupt officials. This fact, by the time the Attorney General's office had announced that it was an accident, was very much out in the public with many people demanding answers but getting none.
The Netflix show ends on a sombre note as both Castillo and Carolina are confronted with their newly acquired promotions due to the Paulette case. In the story of Paulette's disappearance, we are actually following the two as they begin their contradictory narratives of finding the truth.
In that, the Netflix show does not disappoint. The dramatizations are revealing as the show recognizes not just the inconsistencies in the statements provided by the four members closest to Paulette but also looks into how authorities extracted these very statements.
There are several occasions where characters on the show point out to the fact that the entire investigation is like a soap opera — and rightly so since it was a complete mess. The Netflix series essentially sticks to the facts surrounding the disappearance of the young girl. But it is the dramatization that brings the series to a conclusion as each character is driven by his own agenda.
'The Search' is currently streaming on Netflix.