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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Vicky Jessop

Stuck for something to binge? The chilling trailer for Our Father has dropped on Netflix

If you thought The Tinder Swindler was bad, think again: Netflix has just released the trailer for new documentary Our Father and it is downright chilling.

It will tell the story of Donald Cline, an Indiana-based infertility doctor who inseminated his female patients with his own sperm and fathered more than 50 children as a result.

Directed by Lucie Jourdan, the documentary will interview and explore the lives of Cline and the biological children that he fathered illegally.

It will also interview several of those children, exploring how at-home DNA testing helped them to uncover the truth and the repercussions of discovering the truth of their births.

If you think you’ve heard this story before, you might have: in 2019, The Atlantic newspaper broke the news of the Cline scandal and caused an international outcry.

The documentary is also expected to cover this, and examine the loopholes in the law that let Cline arguably avoid justice for his actions.

Though he pleaded guilty to two charges of obstruction of justice after trying to cover up his actions to investigators, he was never charged with rape or sexual abuse.

In the trailer itself, some of Cline’s biological children also have their say on his actions, with one saying that “it was some sick experiment to him.”

Chilling: The documentary explores the stories of Cline’s biological children (Netflix)

“It’s almost like this perfect Aryan clan,” another stated – as many of Cline’s children share blonde hair and blue eyes.

“You’re praying, please don’t let it be somebody I know,” one of the children goes onto explain. “Please don’t let it be somebody I dated.”

However, it also explores some of the pushback they faced when trying to break the story, with one person calling Cline a “person in a position of power” who is “known in our community as a philanthropist.”

As you might expect, once the trailer dropped on social media, fans and audiences had plenty to say on the matter.

“This is sick,” one tweeted, while another commented that it was “crazy how these documentaries always [have] perpetrators getting away with it”.

YouTube viewers also had plenty to say on the matter. “This has got to be the worst nightmare of anyone who has ever or will ever need to use any sort of IVF/sperm donor,” one commenter wrote.

“This is genuinely one of the worst types of violation I can imagine. The pain this would bring to the child, to both their parents, I just can’t even imagine. I will definitely be watching this.”

Our Father will be dropping on Netflix on May 20.

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