“A Life Too Short: The Isabella Nardoni Case” (2023) True Crime Documentary on Netflix

“A Life Too Short: The Isabella Nardoni Case” is a documentary directed by Micael Langer and Cláudio Manoel.

Sao Paolo on March 28th 2008, the young Isabella died. At the tender age of five, she was found on the lawn, severely injured and having fallen from the sixth floor of the building where she and her father lived.

With what I rhetorically say, a blink of an eye the media started to report on the terrible occurrence. And the press started its spectacle, with dozens of journalists showing up, as this was the news exploded: was it a crime or an accident? Who? When? Why? The media frenzy was, although overwhelming to the family, in a way understandable due to the wave of cases of children falling from buildings in the city.

Suspicions and accusations were thrown around, by everybody despite the police conducting an investigation. The girl’s parents were divorced, and Isabella was with her father the weekend the tragedy happened. Was he behind it? Then, suspicion fell on the building’s doorman, but the girl’s mother started investigating on her own when she found blood on the floor. Was it the girl’s blood?

This is this week’s true crime on Netflix. Netflix brings us another perfect example, and this time with extra attention on how the media covered the case triggering the reflection (as in thought) and irony: what is it with the press and media that in real crimes are so voraciously covered? Obviously, audience rates.

About the Documentary

Following the conventional true crime formula, “A Life Too Short: The Isabella Nardoni Case” takes us through the sick world of infanticide in a documentary that highlights the darkest, most morbid sides of the crime, which also became a media phenomenon in Brazil.

In this documentary we are given a prime example of poor and blood-thirsty media coverage can turn a tragedy into a dizzying spectacle that will allow everybody and anybody to chip in with an opinion, a theory, a conspiracy.

A documentary that is born with the lesson well learned: not to reveal the culprit from the beginning, to create intrigue and use all the tricks at its disposal to maintain the viewer hooked in suspense. As if it were a suspenseful movie, “A Life Too Short: The Isabella Nardoni Case” knows how to play with the viewer, the viewer’s feelings given the delicate nature of the case, and propose a new suspect with each clue, leaving us on our tip toes until the end, skillfully combining fragments of a crime that is reconstructed and dramatized before the viewer’s eyes.

Our Opinion

As a “true crime” documentary, it knows how to play its game to perfection, just like the journalists who covered the case knew how to narrate the developments of the case as the news unfolded like a serial, not shying away from sensationalism.

The Case

The murder of Isabella de Oliveira Nardoni remains one of the most notorious cases of infanticide in Brazil. Tragically, on the evening of March 29, 2008, five-year-old Isabella suffered fatal injuries after being forcibly thrown from the sixth floor of the residential building where she resided with her father, Alexandre Alves Nardoni, stepmother Anna Carolina Jatobá, and their newborn siblings in North São Paulo. Subsequent investigations revealed that the young girl had been subjected to physical abuse by her caregivers, leading to the conviction of both individuals for intentional homicide.

Throughout the duration of this distressing case, the Brazilian media has been closely monitoring the developments and providing constant updates. In fact, a survey conducted indicated that an overwhelming 98% of Brazilians are familiar with Isabella’s tragic death, marking the highest percentage ever recorded in the history of media coverage research in Brazil.