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Netflix's No One Saw Us Leave is a Spanish-language show based on a true story adapted from the autobiographical memoir by Tamara Trottner. In the book, she writes about her real-life childhood experience of being kidnapped and taken away by her father along with her brother as a result of her parents' separation in 1960s Mexico. They were literally taken across several countries and were kept hidden for years, leaving them traumatized for life.
The Netflix series that adapts this novel reflects the same story. The book states the reason behind the kidnapping as revenge or punishment for Valeria, their mother. The show dramatizes several events, but the themes of separation, longing and childhood trauma remain the same.
No One Saw Us Leave: Here is why Leo moved away with the kids in real life.
No One Saw Us Leave tries to keep the emotions and story intact, with Leo and Valeria being in an arranged marriage within a wealthy Jewish-Mexican community. They do not share any love between them. As a result, Valeria begins an affair with Leo's brother-in-law.
Therefore, Leo's father, Samuel, uses this affair as a reason for keeping the kids away from her. Meanwhile, Leo is seen saying that the kids will be "safer" as they are moving to a "better" place away from their mother. The show portrays that Leo is driven by a sense of duty towards his family and kids, while it's only over time that he realizes the consequences of his actions.
The show creates a situation where the accumulation of many incidents leads Leo to believe that abducting the kids is the right way. He is concerned about the family honor after Valeria's affair, while also obeying his father's wishes and himself claiming to "protect" the kids by separating them from the mother.
On the other hand, if we see Tamara's autobiography book, she writes that at the age of 5, she and her brother were taken away by their father from Mexico. This happened without warning as he kept them apart from their mother for years. He moves them across several countries, including Europe, before settling down in Israel, so that Valeria couldn't track them. While speaking with Que Leer Libros, Tamara talks about the book and explains,
"Nobody Saw Us Leave is a story inspired by true events: on my fifth birthday, my father kidnapped me and my brother to get revenge on my mother. For two years, we traveled the world visiting three continents and our perceptions of life, childhood, love security were coloured by this experience."
Therefore, the real-life story, the memoir, indicates that Leo's motive was to take revenge in No One Saw Us Leave. Leo was responding to a perceived wrong by their mother, and keeping the kids away was a way to punish Valeria.
He also tells Valeria that he is protecting the kids by taking them away from her toxic household. However, the kids were equally traumatized, even while living with Leo. This further confirmed, even in No One Saw Us Leave, that Leo only wanted to make Valeria feel the pain, the same pain he felt from her affair. This act for Leo was like a psychological weapon; however, the kids also suffer.
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What lies beneath this act, and is the same in the book as well as the show, is how Leo wanted to control his family and Valeria under the guise of providing more freedom, so that when things went beyond his control, he found it valid to seek revenge, in No One Saw Us Leave.
Catch the show only on Netflix.
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