The story of criminal mastermind Charles Sobhraj has captivated true crime followers for more than 40 years. The serial killer left a trail of bodies — mostly young European and North American backpackers — across Asia in the 1970s, then stunned everyone when he escaped from prison not once but at least four times.
(Caution: Spoilers ahead! Do not read until you have watched “The Serpent.”)
Now on Netflix, the devious con man’s story is an eight-part docudrama from Mammoth Screen first shown on BBC, created by Tom Shankland and Richard Warlow. The creators decided to frame the story around Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who spent years on the trail of Sobhraj and was key to his eventual arrest. They interviewed Knippenberg along with several other real-life figures who are still alive. However, they did not speak with the imprisoned Sobhraj, who has already sensationally manipulated his own story over the years.
(Caution: Spoilers ahead! Do not read until you have watched “The Serpent.”)
Now on Netflix, the devious con man’s story is an eight-part docudrama from Mammoth Screen first shown on BBC, created by Tom Shankland and Richard Warlow. The creators decided to frame the story around Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg, who spent years on the trail of Sobhraj and was key to his eventual arrest. They interviewed Knippenberg along with several other real-life figures who are still alive. However, they did not speak with the imprisoned Sobhraj, who has already sensationally manipulated his own story over the years.
- 4/6/2021
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim first learned about serial killer Charles Sobhraj as a teenager in the 1990s. He picked up the book On the Trail of the Serpent from his older brother’s nightstand, and read about a manipulative murderer who drugged, stole from and killed a series of mostly backpacking victims along South Asia’s “hippie trail” in the 1970s. Two decades later, Rahim would be cast as Sobhraj in true crime drama The Serpent, an eight part series now on Netflix. In it, the actor sought to channel the unnervingly still, hypnotic but fast-striking cobra-like quality the book’s descriptions of Sobhraj had conjured up for him.
Richard Neville and Julie Clarke’s On the Trail of the Serpent: the Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj was first published in 1979 and narrates events from the killer’s childhood until the late 1970s. It became a global bestseller on its initial publication,...
Richard Neville and Julie Clarke’s On the Trail of the Serpent: the Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj was first published in 1979 and narrates events from the killer’s childhood until the late 1970s. It became a global bestseller on its initial publication,...
- 4/2/2021
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
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