Dignity

This is an heavily imagined rewriting of the days and weeks leading up to the flight of Paul Schäfer from the "Colony" he had founded in Chile after escaping criminal charges in Germany. Dead for many years, Shafer's legacy lives on in the many lives he shattered. Using invented characters, it recounts, partly in flashback, the horrors of life in the colony where abuse of children was rife as detailed in the series.

The colony, set up as a charitable association, performed this role for the surrounding area with its hospital and educational facilities. However, it was a front for a cult centred on Schäfer as God's representative on the one hand and a conduit for illegal arms transfers alongside torture and abuse on the other.

In the series a dogged prosecutor and a cop take on the power of the colony still protected by powerful men left over from Pinochet's rule and for whom it had "disappeared" hundreds of people. We know from history that Schäfer was ousted, so the thrust of the plot leads to that end via many a twist and turn.

It's worth a watch even though much doesn't ring true. Why weren't the goodies, who had no protection and were living openly, simply bumped off? Nonetheless, I saw it through to the end and wasn't sorry.