On Tuesday, Sense ficció premiered The Survivor, a documentary by Kike Maíllo and Markos Goikolea about Alícia Esteve, the woman who posed as a 9/11 victim under the fake name Tania Head and ended up managing one of the most important survivors' associations in New York. A story that, like Enric Marco's, provokes fascination. These are such extraordinary cases that it is inevitable for the viewer to be hooked with absolute predisposition, especially after the magnificent Oswald. The Forger,, by the same director.But La supervivent causes disappointment, both in terms of the research work and the narrative approach. The fact that the documentary begins with the director's voice talking about himself already anticipates a presence that will become invasive. The device of recreating the protagonist through the figure of an actress is understandable to complete the missing voice, but it ends up seeming like a method to disguise lame and timid research. La supervivent has an excess of theatricality and not just because of the actress who plays Tania Head. Maíllo's voice-over is too rehearsed. His presence is affected and artificial: with his coat on and collar turned up, he has an almost police-like and intimidating attitude. This demeanor does not fit with a story that, as it progresses, lowers the pretensions of its objective. No witness from Alícia Esteve's past shows their face. Not one. And the recreations of her statements lose authenticity. The stock footage of Barcelona hints instead of explaining.The chronology of the events and the New York stage provide few new details compared to previous productions such as The woman who wasn’t there by Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. (2012). Furthermore, there is a certain informational regression when facing the dilemma of the right to privacy. In La supervivent, it is disconcerting that Alícia Esteve’s face is pixelated in images that have already been published and that her real surname is censored in the newspaper archives. Even that a beep is added when someone pronounces it. As the investigation evolves, we discover that, in reality, there is no investigation: “I think it is better to leave her alone,” says her mysterious boss. And the documentary obeys. Then, the only way out is to turn the production into a kind of philosophical reflection on lies and the need to invent a life for oneself, with conclusions as weak as “what makes a lie work is our willingness to believe it.” They throw in the towel and all that remains is to justify themselves by taking refuge in compassion for the protagonist: “We have reached the end of our search and, almost without realizing it, we have left behind the need to judge her.” It is inevitable to wonder if this prudence and extreme care to protect the fraudster would have also been applied to Enric Marco. If they were so concerned about her privacy, they should not have started looking for her. The viewer reaches the end with the feeling that the directors knew much more than they wanted to tell us and, therefore, as an investigation, it turns out to be another hoax.

The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has generated premieres on platforms to commemorate, above all, the victims. There are affected and tearful tributes, such as the one proposed by Netflix with Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror, a production that tries too hard to argue that a transformative social legacy remains from that tragedy. They are interviews with young people who were children on the day of the catastrophe and also survivors and relatives of victims who explain how their lives changed. A dispensable option for being forced and sensationalist.The Disney+ platform has released a three-episode series from National Geographic. Each 9/11 anniversary, this label seeks an alternative approach to the attacks. 9/11: One Day in America retells the experiences of the Twin Towers and Pentagon survivors in a very emotional way. It encourages the reunion between rescuers and the rescued amidst the chaos and panic. Each episode collects several unheard-of stories, those that make one shudder but have a, at the very least, moderately happy ending. Each witness separately explains the hours leading up to the catastrophe, remembering what seemed like it would be a normal workday until the planes crashed into the building where they worked. The stories will intersect in the midst of the desperation. There are incredible ones, where you notice how the most insignificant detail becomes a providential fact for the resolution of the drama, such as a window cleaner entering the elevator of one of the towers at the last minute. The reunion after twenty-five years brings a bit of comfort to the harshness of the tale. The insistence of the music, which tries too hard to underline an emotion that does not need embellishments, is unnecessary. It is very likely that you will need a few tissues before finishing each episode. In the documentary, a psychological emotional response that runs through all the productions commemorating the tragedy appears repeatedly: survivor's guilt. An irrational reaction that the protagonists often mention as an aspect that has hindered their ability to recover. Despite this, 9/11: One Day in America has the ability to speak to us about the possibility of rising from trauma through real examples. In the productions, terms like jihadism, Bin Laden, Mohamed Atta or similar are never mentioned, so the trigger for it all is deliberately erased.If you are still in the mood for more air disasters, Netflix has released this summer the British miniseries based on true events Lockerbie. An excellent recreation of the 1988 terrorist attack that blew up a plane flying from London to New York and crashed over the town of Lockerbie. A key precedent for understanding some aspects of the management of 9/11. The rigorous reconstruction of the investigation, the clarity with which the events are exposed, and the actors' performances make the series an addictive option that, furthermore, manages to provide a humanistic reading of great tragedies in a very pertinent way.

A quarter of a century has passed and the horror of that day still seems near. And that of the following ones, when in sleepwalking New York we breathed the ashes of the corpses carbonized and dissolved in the atmosphere.