My Sextortion Diary
When film producer Pati Franquesa’s computer is stolen, she becomes trapped in a blackmail scheme when the hacker demands $2,400 or he will release a handful of lewd, private photos to her coworkers. Will the authorities help, or will she have to take matters into her own hands?
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Extortion is when a criminal offers you protection from a threat that they have complete control over. When that threat is the distribution of compromising or sexual photos of you, that is sextortion. It’s a distinction I’m sure Patricia Franquesa never wanted to know, but something that she had to deal with. This story begins when she’s delivering a film of hers to a film festival in Madrid. On the way, she stops for lunch with an ex-boyfriend and her laptop gets stolen. This pain-in-the-ass incident turns darker once a hacker contacts her and demands she deposit $2,400 into a Bitcoin account or they’ll send the compromising nude photos they found to friends, family, and business contacts. She doesn’t want to believe it’ll happen, but friends start receiving the photos. If this was a documentary, we would have the benefit of hindsight to know whether what she does next is right and wrong, but because this is smartly structured as a present-tense diary, we are thrust into the position of questioning what we would do in the same situation. When the private is made public, there is often a sense of shame, embarrassment, and anger, but Franquesa finds strength in turning her trouble into this movie. You’ll have to watch it to know how it all turns out.
- Original Language Title: Diario de Mi Sextorsión
- Director: Patricia Franquesa
- Country: Spain
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 63 min.
- Producer: Patricia Franquesa, Mireia Graell
- Screenplay: Patricia Franquesa
- Cinematographers: Patricia Franquesa
- Editors: Patricia Franquesa
- Music: Laura Casaponsa
- Filmography: Oh Dear Sara (2021)
- Language: Catalan, Valencian, English, Spanish
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- International Sales: Taskovski Films
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