Con Mum

Directed by Nick Green, this Netflix documentary follows pastry chef Graham Hornigold, whose life is upended by an email in 2020 from a woman claiming to be the biological mother he had never known, and who knew accurate details such as his birth in Germany. They met soon after, and she presented herself as a wealthy businesswoman connected to Southeast Asian royalty, said she was having trouble accessing her fortune, and began showering them with luxury gifts, including a seventy five thousand pound car for Graham. Then she announced she had terminal cancer and persuaded him to open credit cards and sign finance agreements in his name, endlessly deferring repayment on the promise of an inheritance. The debt approached three hundred thousand pounds. His partner grew suspicious, started digging, and found a bottle of red food coloring among the woman's belongings: the blood she claimed to be coughing up was fake. The film's real gut punch is that a DNA test confirmed she genuinely was his mother. British authorities declined to prosecute on the grounds of the family relationship, but after the documentary aired, other victims came forward in Singapore, where she was charged with fraud. Who it's for: Anyone drawn to con artist documentaries and to cases where a family bond becomes the weapon. Who it's not for: Not for viewers wanting justice served and an uplifting close, since the film ends unresolved and bleak.