THE TINDER SWINDLER
UK, 2022, 114 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Felicity Morris.
This is a true story. And with so much evidence up there on the screen.
This Netflix documentary achieved enormous popularity worldwide, seen by millions, talked about, the subject of all kinds of probing through the various media.
This is the story of a professional fraud, a conman from Israel, calling himself Simon Leviev, blaming to be son of a diamond merchant, living the high, very high, and life. After fleeing Israel and changing his name, he lived abroad under his assumed identity, conning a great number of women, extorting large sums of money from them by personal appeal and persuasion.
(With the expose of the scams, and information on social media, the women themselves were subject to a great deal of aggressive messages and tweets – especially by males.)
This is also a story that develops within the world of social media and is exposed by social media and mainstream media. Very much a story of the first two decades of the 21st-century.
The centre, as the title indicates, is the app for dating, Tinder. The women rely on tinder, the film showing a lot of images from the app, especially when there is the success of a “match”.
There are some immediate indications of trouble with the introduction of some of the women. However, one of them, from Finland living in London, Cecilie, narrates her story for the first part of the film, fairly calmly, step-by-step, indicating her enthusiasm and infatuation, always saying that she favours a love, the high life, the appeals for money, her efforts to send money to Simon, her efforts to retrieve some money, the expose.
The second woman, from Sweden, and Villa, has a much more serious attitude towards Simon even though she is infatuated by him. Her role is more of a companion and friend with him having a Polish girlfriend at the time of their relationship and her visits and international trips. Again she is targeted for money and supplies Simon.
In the meantime, the audiences got to know Simon rather well, the result of the women keeping so much footage of him, photos of him on Tinder, on the Internet, seen by Googling. He seems to be about 30+ or minus, is accompanied by a large bodyguard (who also appears in some of the photos), and are sometimes seen business partner. He is always in a jet, sometimes private jets, going to all parts of Europe, allegedly on business, but always seen at parties. And he has an extensive and fashionable wardrobe.
When Cecilie discovers the truth about Simon, she approaches the police, and the media. The film shows the work of investigative journalists working for the mainstream media, efforts made, visits to Israel, to the Israeli police, finding Simon’s mother and her disowning of him, international travel, information from Sicily and from Pamela, locating Simon in Munich and photographing him.
However, it is the third woman, Ayleen, from Holland, who was instrumental in bringing Simon down. She has the same experiences, contact, high life, requests for money. However, she pretends to be interested, Simon setting up a new bank account, her informing the police where he will be, the name that he has, and he is arrested – to her great satisfaction and the satisfaction of all.
There would be little satisfaction from the audience watching the film concerning Simon, arrested by Interpol, tried in Israel, a short prison term – and he is out and about, even advertising business advice on Google!
JE SUIS KARL site
