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I got to know about this documentary just a few months ago thanks to a professor and finally got around to watch it some days ago after I finished Shoah.
It's a bit hard to say something about it because the other review covers it pretty well, but basically what you have here is an alleged case of pedophilia, and the documentary does a very good job in showing multiple different testimonies and perspectives from the accused, the rest of their family, the supposed victims, policemen in charge of the case at the time, judges, lawyers, and more implied, and each one of them intertwined with something said by someone else, whether complimentary or against the previous declaration, widening and improving the coverage of the matter at hand, while also not doing it too fast so it doesn't seem like one answer is cut short in favor of the other.
Another good thing is that the interviewer, whoever that may be, points out and asks for the contradictions present on the answers of the interviewed, or asks about something said by someone else, or present in the documents of the case.
These two factors are important to keep the presentation of such a heavy subject as neutral and unbiased as possible, so it's a major plus.
The whole documentary is made in a way that it's never fully clear if the accused were guilty or not, which along with the previous points, adds in letting the viewers decide on their own, proof of which is the debates over the true behind the case that continues even to this day.
The presentation is pretty good as well, combining the interviews with footage from the time the case took place and even videos from the affected family itself. Even more than that, let me talk about what I consider to be the best two aspects of the directing.
There is a sequence in the beginning when the youngest son is talking about his father as a famous figure, shown through a wide shot, but then as soon as he says something along the lines of "but then him as a husband and wife...had things that I rather not talk about", and the camera zooms directly on his face as he talks, while also cutting away at the right moment to not come off as emotional manipulation.
The other aspect is the name of the documentary itself, which combined with its beginning makes you think that it means that it's going to "show" the family that it's mentioned in the title, but as soon as the conflict presents itself and charges of pedophilia are involved, "capturing" just acquires another meaning, and even makes you rethink the whole sequence I referred to earlier (unless of course you knew about the case beforehand already, of which I didn't). Very good way to introduce the topic and conflict and subvert the initial expectations.
The aspects that aren't good about it is how sometimes videos of the family fooling around even right before the trial are shown, taking away a bit of seriousness of the whole thing. I mean, the family was screwed, it's easy to notice that, but the director could have excluded those bits.
Another bad aspect is the music, deliberately chose to come off as super sad and emotionally manipulative, something which I'm against.
And then, I saw on YouTube somebody pointing out that a major confession done by one of the accused, the older son, is not present in the documentary for the sake of making it seem ambiguous and neutral, despite him confessing everything, and apparently more important evidence was left out as well, which is a shame.
Despite those few but very important negative aspects, it's a very well put together documentary and I'm glad I got to know about it and watch it. It's very worth a watch when you want some real, serious and at best bittersweet content.
8/10
