A quirky, kooky girl, young and pretty but a bit inexperienced in the ways of the world, in the first flush of a brand new relationship but otherwise alone in a foreign country far from her family and friends, the support network where she would normally find solace and guidance. This seems to be the truth of Amanda Knox, the young American student who in 2007 became the prime suspect in the brutal murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, while studying overseas in the Italian town of Perugia. However, this is far from the picture that existed of Knox for more than eight years as the world came to know her as a deadly, sexually rapacious and emotionally inert femme fatale. As this film unequivocally proves, Knox's was a trial by misogyny and media.
The success of Making A Murderer has revealed a massive enthusiasm for true crime programming and Netflix's documentary into Amanda Knox's conviction - one of the most high-profile miscarriages of justices of recent years - once again reveals the systemic abuses which can lead to wrongful imprisonment. It also explores the scale of the media feeding frenzy that saw Knox demonised with such unfounded hyperbole that it convinced the public this ordinary girl was a sex crazed, drug-fuelled harpy who held inexplicable sway over men and orchestrated Kercher's death to satisfy her lust for violence. Hearing Knox speak about her experiences, articulately and with great dignity, makes the fact this absurd persona was so eagerly swallowed by the world even more extraordinary, but of course, during her imprisonment, Knox's own words rarely made it to the ears of the public.
The voices that were heard during her eight-year suspicion, however, were the men who sought to smear her reputation. Lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who likens himself to Sherlock Holmes, apparently divined Knox's guilt from his investigative instincts rather than actual evidence. "A woman who has killed tends to cover the body of female victims," he claimed, commenting on the state of Kercher's body when it was discovered under a doona. "A man would never think to do this" It's astonishing that this unempirical, testosterone fuelled reasoning was deemed legitimate for any amount of time and yet Knox's eight years as the prime suspect in Kercher's murder hinged on this chauvinistic logic, tenuously backed up by unreliable and contaminated forensics.
This film reveals the bungled deductions of those who spearheaded the investigation, but it also shows the very relatable side of Knox that the media worked so hard to obscure. Journalist Nick Pisa, who authored many of the most outrageous tabloid stories about Knox, is the unexpected villain of the piece. He comes across as flippant and incredulous, claiming that corroborating sources and fact checking — the foundation of ethical journalism — would have lost him precious scoops. In fact, it lost Amanda Knox eight years of her life.
Shots of Knox smiling, kissing her boyfriend and generally not appearing all that upset were carefully edited by the media for maximum vilification. As Pisa gleefully puts it, "it was manna from heaven," and yet, given that she was thousands of kilometres from home, isolated and confronted by a situation that must have seemed as surreal as it was shocking, the behaviour that many said proved her guilt seems more likely to have been an attempt at strength in a moment of extreme vulnerability. Without the objectivity and clarity of a fair hearing, it seems likely anyone could be framed to look guilty; it's a just irony that without any manipulation of hackery, Pisa comes across in this documentary more unflatteringly than he unquestionably intended.
Amanda Knox is available to stream on Netflix now
