Warning: this article discusses abuse and sexual assault.
Netflix’s riveting documentaryThe Lost Childrentells the true story of four young siblings surviving in the Colombian rainforest after a plane crash. The crash and ensuing search for the children became international news in 2023 when people across Colombia realized how young the children were and how difficult it would be for them to survive alone in the Amazon. The documentary outlines how the world watched with bated breath untilthe titular lost children were finally rescued from the Colombian rainforest after 40 days.
The Lost Children, directed by Oscar winner, Orlando von Einsiedel, captured audiences' attention with its portrayal of the rescue efforts undertaken by the Colombian military and Indigenous groups.The Lost Childrendoesn’t focus much on where the kids are now, but focuses on the rescue effort and background. While the beginning of the film depicts the mother and her children boarding the plane to set the scene, the majority ofThe Lost Childrenis footage taken by the people who searched for the children in 2023, augmented by interviews with military personnel, Indigenous volunteers, and the children’s family members, who also give insight into their relationship with their father, Manuel Ranoque.
Manuel Ranoque Was Arrested For Abuse After His Kids Were Rescued
New Evidence About His Treatment Of The Children Surfaced
In the final minutes ofThe Lost Children, messages appear on the screen to share thatthe children were put in the custody of Colombia’s Institute of Family Welfare andtheir father, Manuel Ranoque, was arrested. According toSportskeeda, Ranoque was arrested in August 2023, just months after the children were rescued. He was charged with sexually assaulting his stepdaughter, Lesly, and he is now in jail waiting for his trial.
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Among the footage used inThe Lost Childrenare videos of Ranoque, who is the father of Tien and Cristin Mucutuy and stepfather to Lesly and Soleiny Mucutuy. In the first half of the documentary, Ranoque is shown as being devastated by his children’s absence and the loss of their mother. However, by the middle of the documentary, the truth starts to come out whenthe children’s aunt and grandmother both admit that the kids were afraid of him and that he had a history of abuse.
The Lost Children Outlines That The Children Were Previously Scared of Manuel Ranoque
After the children’s aunt and their maternal grandmother, Fatima Valencia, are interviewed in the middle of the documentary, it shifts what the viewers thought they knew about the search.Fatima Valencia claimed that her daughter (the children’s mother), Magdalena Mucutuy, was abused by Manuel Ranoque. Fatima alleged that Magdalena had scars all over her body from Ranoque’s abuse, which she covered with her hair and clothes. The children’s aunt and grandmother even stated that they worried for the lives of the four siblings and their mother prior to the 2023 plane crash.
At one point in the documentary, when all the searchers begin to doubt whether they will even find the children, the two women even claim that they believe the children are hiding purposefully so that they do not have to see Manuel Ranoque.
At one point in the documentary, when all the searchers begin to doubt whether they will even find the children, the two women even claim that they believe the children are hiding purposefully so that they do not have to see Manuel Ranoque. WhileThe Lost Childrennever confirms whether this is truly what the children were doing,it does support the conclusion that the rainforest itself wanted Ranoque to leave after he became sick following their yagé ritual. Thankfully,The Lost Childrenconcludes with the children safely surviving the crash and continuing to be safely cared for far from Ranoque.
Source:Sportskeeda
The Lost Children
The Lost Children, directed by Jorge Duran, Orlando von Einsiedel, and Lali Houghton, follows four indigenous children who rely on ancestral wisdom to survive in the Colombian Amazon after a plane crash, as an unprecedented rescue mission unfolds.
