Genre: Documentary
Number of episodes: 4
Year: 2020
Starring: Jeffrey Epstein
Description: Survivors worldwide reveal the manipulation, abuse and emotional scars suffered at the hands of wealthy convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Their stories expose a sex trafficking ring of powerful enablers leading up to his 2019 arrest.
Review: Last year, Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide was breaking news. He died in prison, were he was sent to because of the abuse of several underaged girls.
The arrest last year came as a surprise for the survivors. For years, billionaire Epstein was allowed to go his way without law enforcement correcting him. Thanks to the #MeToo movement the authorities finally saw they had to stop him.
This four-part documentary starts with the story of two sisters, who come in contact with Epstein due to the oldest sister Maria’s artwork. Epstein buys one of her paintings and invites her to visit him at one of his friends’ mansions. He tries to force himself on Maria and steals photos she has of her sister Annie, which she used for her paintings. When Maria reports it to the FBI, they don’t act and Maria never hears from the FBI again. A journalist, working for Vanity Fair, hears about the story and wants to publish it in the magazine. But the editor in chief doesn’t let her and changes the story, making Epstein look like some kind of messiah. The journalist and victims are then threatened and intimidated by Epstein. And that’s how he works: with friends in high places, money and intimidation he always gets his way.
From New York we go to Palm Beach, Florida. There Epstein build a sexual pyramid-game with underaged girls. Dozens of young girls are asked to massage him and then he abuses them. He pays them and whoever brings them new girls, get an extra 200 dollars. The vulnerable girls are pressured and this way Epstein was able to abuse lots of young girls. The police collects enough evidence to send him to jail for life, but Epstein manages to get away with a short jail time due to a deal with the prosecutor. A man who worked as Donald Trump’s secretary for years.
And then there is the infamous island, where he took dozens of young girls who he violated and abused. With that, he also trafficked them to his friends, where the girls were forced to have sex with them as well.
Many of Epstein’s victims tell their story in this documentary. They get a voice and tell, in great detail, what happened to them. It shows how their life was influenced by Epstein and how he tried to ruin it even more. Years after the crimes took place, the now adult women all still suffer from great trauma which they will probably have for the rest of their lives.
In the series, we also see Ghislaine Maxwell. According to all the victims, she was the one that scouted the girls for Epstein and also took part in the abuse herself. And Maxwell wasn’t the only one. Maxwell denies everything, of course, and was never charged with anything. The victims want that Maxwell and the other people who helped Epstein, are also punished for their crimes.
Epstein never took responsible for his action, up until the end, since he committed suicide.
“Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” is a strong documentary. It’s unreal what power and money can do. Epstein was able to get away with his actions for too long
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