Murder by the Coast

Tània Balló's 2021 Spanish documentary is less about a murder investigation than about how a miscarriage of justice was constructed. The teenager Rocío Wanninkhof was killed in 1999 and suspicion gathered on Dolores Vázquez, her mother's former partner. There was no physical evidence against Vázquez; the press instead portrayed her as cold, distant and a lesbian, and public opinion passed judgement on that portrait. She was convicted and imprisoned. After Sonia Carabantes was killed in 2003, DNA recovered from that scene matched a sample from the first and pointed to another man; Vázquez was released. The film documents how media and public prejudice seeped into a legal process, and does so through the record of the period rather than by putting Vázquez herself on camera. Who it's for: viewers interested in true crime and in criticism of the press. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach the details of the killings and footage of the victims' families.