Imagine discovering that the man you had a baby with doesn’t exist; and instead he was a fictional character invented by a scammer.
This is what happened to a Parisian named Marianne, the victim of a romantic fraud by a man who led several imaginary lives.
The man known as Brazilian Ricardo, but also men named Daniel and Alexandre of different nationalities, depending on who you are talking to, is a serial con artist who tricked four women into falling in love with him.
He lived with these women at the same time and tailored his personality traits and life story to each one, making them think they had met “the one.”
Each powerful story is detailed in Man of a Thousand Faces, a new documentary premiering November 22, directed by French journalist Sonia Kronlund.
Marianne (played by Aurelie Gasche) was under the impression that she was dating a surgeon who had spent years in Africa with Doctors Without Borders.
One day, Ricardo told her that he was in Toulouse to study pediatrics, but that he was actually seeing his other wife in Krakow.
Alarm bells went off when she was five months pregnant with her son when she suddenly couldn’t contact him as the phone numbers he had given her were fake.
The man, known as the Brazilian Ricardo, but also as Daniel and Alexandre, depending on who he is talking to, is a serial scammer who tricked four women into falling in love with him.
When Ricardo began to suspect that something was wrong in his relationships, his exit strategy was to disappear after receiving a phone call telling him that one of his parents had died or was in a coma.
Under the identity of Alexandre, his dating profile said he was 36 years old and living in the capital of France.
He described himself as “shy, hardworking and sociable” and stated that he did not smoke and worked in the medical field.
But other women knew him as a Peugeot engineer, doctor and photographer or working in telecommunications.
One victim even claims that Ricardo was dating 15 partners simultaneously.
But Ricardo, who was described in the film as a “sociopath”, was running a global operation, dating women from all over the world, including Rio, Poland and France.
Ricardo, nicknamed “charming” by one of his victims, sent women photographs of himself in various places.
Among them, he poses in a pilot’s uniform in the cockpit of an airplane, poses as a security guard, performs surgical operations and plays the bagpipes in a kilt at night.
Nicknamed “charmer” by one of his victims, Ricardo sent women photographs of himself in various places, including in the cabin of an airplane.
In the trailer a woman is seen saying that she found him exchanging around 20 messages with ‘several women’
Some of the women are played by actresses in the production, however, the audience does not know who is “real” and who is acting until the credits.
Ricardo also sent a selfie holding a handwritten sign that said, “Good morning, I love you,” in Polish, while another said, “Have a nice day,” in French. Both messages were followed by a love heart he had drawn.
But the group of women finally uncovered their web of lies. One victim said they discovered he was being unfaithful after opening his browser history and seeing the accounts he had for his multiple personalities.
Another realized it when she discovered a photo she had sent to the mother of her little daughter. In the trailer, a woman is seen saying she found around 20 messages with “several women.”
When one victim, who is a qualified psychologist, was asked why she believed his questionable stories, she said: “It was better for me not to understand too much, according to The Times.
The filmmaker had the idea for the production after her friend was the victim of a love fraud, according to what she said. daily screen.
Ricardo another wrote messages such as ‘Have a good day’, in French, followed by a love heart that he had drawn for his victim.
The man poses next to the window of a restaurant that had his false name
Under the identity of Alexandre, his dating profile said he was 36 years old and living in the capital of France.
The Man of a Thousand Faces, a new documentary premiering on November 22, is directed by French journalist Sonia Kronlund.
She fell in love with a man who had been dating several women at the same time under different aliases.
This sparked Kronlund’s thirst to track down this mysterious man and confront him to try to understand the motive behind his actions.
He wondered if his victims had a specific profile and wanted to find it to understand how his massive deception began.
And Kronlund eventually manages to track him down in an apartment near Krakow and ends up having a conversation with him.
Some of the women are played by actresses in the production, however, the audience does not know who is “real” and who is acting until the credits.