Last night's watch was 'DEAR ZACHARY', this is a 2008 documentary film, which documents the life and death of a man called Andrew Bagby, who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend at the age of 28.
The film was made by a chap called Kurt Kuenne, who was a childhood friend of Andrew's. When Andrew was murdered, Kurt decided to make the film as a documentary of his life, interviewing friends and family from across the world, particularly Andrew's mother and father, Kathleen and David.
The film then takes an unexpected turn as Andrew's suspected murderer, his ex-girlfriend called Shirley, flees to Canada whilst on bail, and once there announces that she is pregnant with Andrew's baby. At this point Kurt decides to morph the film into a 'letter' to the child, so that he might get to know his father through watching the film once he grows up.
Kathleen and David then move to Canada to fight for custody of the baby once he is born, whom Shirley names Zachary, whilst the US legal system fights to have her extradited back to the States, where she is charged with the murder of Andrew.
This is a deeply upsetting, harrowing film. It's not an entirely objective piece, as a lifelong friend of Andrew, Kurt paints Andrew and his family and friends as the good guys, and Shirley is very much the villain of the affair, but then again she did murder Andrew in cold blood - shooting him five times and inflicting blunt trauma wounds to his head after he broke up with her.
This would be bad enough in and of itself, but once the baby is introduced to the story the level of horror becomes almost unbearable, as Kathleen and David are forced to 'befriend' the woman who murdered their son, to maintain visitation and access rights to their grandson, Zachary. (A process over which Shirley very much calls all the shots.)
There is a short reprieve of sorts when Shirley is jailed in Canada, when a provincial court rules that there is sufficient evidence to suggest she is the murderer, at which point Kathleen and David are given full custody of Zachary. But even then, Shirley manages to successfully appeal, is released from jail and is granted bail, at which point she sues for joint custody of Zachary and the Bagbys are forced to share the care of Zachary with her. I would note again here, that this is the woman who murdered their son.
If all that sounds beyond terrible, it ain't finished yet.
I won't say much more than that about the film, it deserves to be watched and unfold the story itself, but be forewarned you'll be blubbing like a baby more than once, although there is hope in the form of the indomitable spirit of Kathleen and David, despite the excrutiating rawness of their anger and grief.
It's quite a hard film to get hold of, it's not on Netflix or Amazon Prime (either instant view or rental), old DVDs of it are still available, but you may be able to source it on other 'home formats', it's still available from Usenet if your provider has sufficient retention (2.4 years ago was the last time it was uploaded).
An absolute gut-punch of a film - 913/1000
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