The Perfect Story (2022)

Directed by

Michelle Shephard

Genre

documentary film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 13m

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A journalist revisits a decade-old story about a Somali man who lost a hand and foot to militants. She discovers he lied about key parts of his account, forcing her to reckon with the ethics of her original coverage.

contemplativeethicalintrospectivesoberingprobingreflectiveunedited

What happens

The Perfect Story is a 2022 Canadian documentary film directed by Michelle Shephard. The film revisits Shephard's 2010 news story about Ismael Abdulle, a young Somali man whose hand and foot were amputated by Al-Shabaab militants. Her initial reportage sparked a campaign to get him transported to another country as a refugee. However, the documentary explores the ethical dilemmas Shephard faced when Abdulle later admitted he had lied about key details of the incident, revealing he was guilty of armed robbery just as Al-Shabaab had claimed, in contrast to his previous claims that the amputation was punishment for refusing the join the group. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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