This enthralling hoax begins on a note of perfect verisimilitude: archival footage purports to show a 1981 death-row interview with Aro Tolbukhin, a Hungarian-born serial killer who committed heinous crimes at a Guatemalan mission. But subsequent elements (dramatic reenactments, Super-8 footage of life at the mission, interviews with those who knew the killer) are artfully skewed to erode one’s confidence in the narrative—and the documentary form itself. But even as the “facts” dissolve into metafiction, the story remains intensely involving. Agusti Villaronga, Lydia Zimmerman, and Isaac P. Racine directed this 2002 feature, a Spanish-Mexican coproduction. 100 min.
