There are times when turning right goes wrong.
These were the cases of several women who came across the Tinder profile of a man who went by the name of Simon Leviev. He was the son of a handsome, romantic and apparently fabulous billionaire diamond broker. Norwegian beauty Cecil Felleho turned right to express interest in meeting Simon, without even realizing that this gesture would put him in the clutches of a scammer.
The Netflix documentary tells the story of how Levi’s kidnapped women for large sums of money. bait crook, a huge hit on the streaming platform and one of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated projects that meet the specter of true crime. In a discussion on Netflix’s FYSEE panel, director Felicity Morris explained how Leviev kissed her predator.
She met him as “an enchanting prince, guided them, took them on this incredible first date. “I mean, he was an ideal guy from the start,” Morris said. “We call it the ‘Simon experience’ these women have had. And then, slowly but surely, he manipulated them and handed them thousands and thousands of dollars. “
Morris appeared in the panel with Joshua Rofes, the director of the film. Bob Ross: Happy accidents, betrayal and greedAnd Chris Smith, documentary director Bad vegan: praise. Fraud. fugitives. The next documentary series focused on New York restaurateur Sarma Melgail, who founded the popular vegan food Pure Food and Wine. Then a mysterious man named Shane Fox entered her life, offering her love story and, thanks to her alleged wealth, a solution to the financial puzzle of her restaurant.
“We were only interested in understanding the psychology of travel [Sarma] “It went from start to finish,” Smith said. “He didn’t owe the restaurant $ 2 million and was working like crazy to keep that dream going.” [Fox] He understood that it was very important to him. So she knew how to take advantage of it by showing that he would be the solution to these problems. “
Instead, he managed to get them to withdraw more than $ 1.7 million from the business. Eventually, both Fox (real name Anthony Strangis) and Melgailis were framed for fraud but escaped (hence the “fugitive” reference in the subtitle). Smith conducted an extensive interview with Melgaile and also extracted audio conversations of her and Fox in which he repeatedly insulted and threatened her.
“I think without that, it would be very difficult to tell the story, because someone is telling you it happened,” Smith said. “Taking this into account through audio was what we thought was the balance for us in terms of participation. [in the series]. “
Bob Ross: Happy accidents, betrayal and greed It tells a light and humorous story about the sudden riots of a beloved bush art teacher, Bob Ross, who became a hit on public television with his painting instruction programs. An element of true guilt comes into play with allegations that Ross’s business associates took advantage of him and that after his death, Ross’s heirs saw no profit in Ross-branded products.
“Whenever money is tied to the arts, obviously if you stay in the business long enough things are definitely going to go wrong,” Rofe said. “[This] This is what history has shown us ”.
Ross’s business partners are portrayed in the film as highly controversial. The director said that didn’t stop him from completing the documentary.
“Before the doctor walks out the door, there are two brick walls of lawyers looking at everything, reviewing everything and reading everything we’ve done at the end of the world and back to make sure everything can be picked up and is legal.” said Rofe. . “So I felt that even if they complained, we would be fine. I wasn’t really mad about it. “
bait crook It shows how some of Simon Leviev’s victims have come together to be brought to justice. Morris tells the story from the point of view of these women.
“I felt that victims of this type of emotional crime were often fired. Sure, when Cecil [Fjellhøy] and pernilla [Sjöholm] He went to the police, they just laughed at them, “Oh, I’m sorry your son did this to you,” Morris said. “We just felt that telling the story was a lot in his eyes and not a betrayal. [Simon] “Any platform was the way to do it.”
Watch the full panel discussion in the video above.
Source: Deadline
