On July 31, 2015, five people were shot dead execution-style in Mexico City: photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, Nadia Vera, Yesenia Quiroz, Mile Virginia Martin and Alejandra Negrete. thHer violent murders caused the public to demand further investigation, and yet this crime remains primarily unsolved, riddled with loose ends and conflicting stories. In broad daylight: the Narvarte case on Netflix does not attempt to solve this crime once and for all. Rather, through testimony from those closest to the victims, it explains why these calls for an investigation are so loud and why so many people refuse to believe the authorities’ version of this tragic story.
IN BRIGHT DAY: THE NARVARTE CASE: STREAM OR SKIP?
The essentials: Directed by Alberto Saúl Arnaut Estrada, this documentary explores the murder of five people that took place in the Narvarte neighborhood in 2015. First, the documentary introduces this largely unsolved mystery in a fairly direct manner. But as the film explores the lives of each new victim, three competing narratives begin to emerge. The documentary also uncovers evidence of corruption that took place during the investigation. In all of these thoughtful deep dives, the same questions haunt this case: who really killed these people and why?
Which movies will it remind you of?: If a David Fincher directed a far more corrupt version of it the thin blue line you would have In broad daylight. The documentary fearlessly peels away the layers of systematic corruption that define this endlessly complicated case. As Reasonable Doubt: A Tale of Two Kidnappings Before that, it continues Netflix’s trend of taking a serious look at Mexico’s history of government corruption.
Notable performance: Oddly enough, it’s director Alberto Saúl Arnaut Estrada who stands out the most. In broad daylight uses dioramas and scale models full of actors in white bodysuits to recreate what happened on the night of July 31, 2015. But it’s not until the last third of the film that you see Estrada actually directing and resetting his living puppets. That moment, coupled with the questions he asks off-screen, goes a long way towards keeping us unaware of what happened that night, and there’s an unsettling possibility we never will.
Memorable dialogue: Of all the murders, the murder of Alejandra Negrete is by far the least motivated. She had no political enemies like Espinosa or Vera, and there is no evidence that she could be associated with prostitution, unlike Quiroz and Martin. In most reports she was only referred to as a “domestic worker”. Following this public disparagement of her life, one quote from Negrete’s daughter Arleth stands out as particularly poignant. “I called them at the same time they were all murdered,” Arleth says over translated subtitles. It’s a powerful reminder that in the midst of this vast conspiracy, real people lost their lives.
Best Single Shot: At one point, jailed former governor César Horacio Duarte Jáquez reveals that he owns a framed copy of the magazine with Espinosa’s damning photograph of him. The same photo led to multiple death threats against Espinosa. Considering that many critics have argued that former Public Safety Secretary Arturo Bermúdez Zurita, a man who worked under Durate, may have been linked to Espinosa’s murder, this is a chilling admission.
gender and skin: none.
Our opinion: True crime documentaries tend to be way too long. That is not the case with In broad daylight, the rare exception that would have benefited from a multi-episode docuseries. This hour-long, 48-minute documentary covers so much ground that it’s almost impossible to watch without taking notes. By the end of the documentary, three theories have emerged.
The first is the one that made this story famous nationally and internationally. It is alleged that these five were murdered because of Rubén Espinosa’s political enemies. The film takes great care to portray his strained relationship with Governor Javier Duarte. Once an employee of Duarte, Espinosa posted a photo of Duarte wearing a police cap, which was used on the cover of process. This photo led to Espinosa receiving multiple death threats. Long before the night in question, Espinosa forged a friendship of sorts with another victim, activist Nadia Vera. Also important to this story is that since Duarte took office at least 15 journalists were killed, and Espinosa was the 88th journalist to be killed in Mexico.
The second theory has to do with the four murdered women. Although Espinosa was the name that grabbed the headlines, political theory does not explain why the other four women were murdered and why at least two of them were so brutally assaulted. Because there is evidence that Quiroz and Martin may have been involved in prostitution, some in this documentary believe they were victims of human trafficking and that they were a crime of femicide. This theory is bolstered by Abraham Torres Tranquillo, one of the accused killers, who had a previous relationship with Martin and said some sexually demeaning things about her.
The last theory is the one put forward by the Mexican authorities, and even that has holes. Police officers claimed that a party took place on the night of July 31st. The murders that followed were part of a drug dispute. Not only does that not explain the presence of Negrete, but it also does not explain the violence of these deaths or why there are no witnesses other than the accused. Even if it was a drug dispute, the same allegations of police incompetence are being made. Why didn’t the authorities investigate those responsible better? How can they not know which cartel was allegedly involved?
Even in the broadest reading of this crime, there are still gaps. There is an outside number that has been called repeatedly and which officers have been unable to identify on three separate occasions. There are clearly manipulated footage of the getaway vehicle. There were brutal beatings against people Espinosa knew and the death threats mentioned above. One of the security firms owned by Zurita was located near the apartment.
What remains is a crime with no satisfying ending, a pointed lack of justice, and a documentary that does some serious hard work. It feels safe to say that In broad daylight could never be safely manufactured in Mexico. But thanks to Netflix, a skeptical read of what happened that night has been made public and available to watch in Mexico. Because of these streaming loopholes, there is a feeling that what these documentarians, creators, and even Netflix have been doing is dangerous on some level. Hopefully this documentary will finally lead to some long-awaited answers in a way that is safe for these issues and this team.
Our appeal: Stream it. This powerful story demands your attention, and Estrada has worked magic to explain these baffling theories.