Lizbeth Meredith became quite the traveler, jet-setting from Anchorage, Alaska to Thessaloniki, Greece on multiple occasions. But the trips were not for pleasure. Rather, they were desperate attempts on the part of a mother to recover the children kidnapped by her craven ex-husband.
As portrayed in the film, Greg Diakos was both a deadbeat dad and an abusive husband. He relied only on his macho charm and family connections to kidnap his two daughters, Marianthi and little Meredith. While in Greece, the little girls did not bathe and often missed school. On one occasion, Greg choked young Marianthi. As a parent, Greg was just as bad as the abusive mother of Lisbeth, whom we meet in several repellent flashback scenes.
While in Thessaloniki, a corrupt judge was apparently on the take in making the decision to award the children to the father. The despicable judge even subjected the little girls to an interrogation. Out of fear, Meredith told the judge that she preferred to live with the father. Thankfully, the filmmakers did not recreate this frightful interview, but rolled the essence of the scene into expository dialogue.
My favorite character was Tally, the kind assistant of Hector, the feckless attorney representing Lisbeth in Greece. Tally, Lisbeth's friend Ann, her boss Julia, and the women working at the shelter were all great support to Lisbeth. One of the most moving scenes was the one in which the women sacrificed their vacation time, so that Lisbeth could travel to Greece and still receive paychecks.
It is shocking to contemplate the fact that this horror story was based on real events. The filmmakers were successful in raising awareness about the tragic dilemma of children kidnapped by a parent and taken to a foreign country.
