FIPADOC 2025: My Sextortion Diary (dir. Patricia Franquesa) | Review

Through a poignant narrative, magnified by an audacious and original device, Spanish director Patricia Franquesa shares her own experience of sextortion in My Sextortion Diary.

In her piece, the director, nicknamed Pati, finds herself confronted with “sextortion” after her laptop containing intimate photos of herself is stolen. Blackmailers threaten to leak the photos to her contacts if she doesn’t pay a ransom. Pati embarks on a quest to regain control of her private life and get her power back.

Sextortion, an umbrella term made up of “sex” and “extortion”, refers to the cybercriminal act of extorting money or sexual favors from a person, under the threat of disseminating sexually explicit personal content via the Internet or text messaging.

Using film as an outlet, the director recounts her traumatic experience and the journey she took to regain control and power over her body.

The documentary raises an essential question for our times: what is intimacy in the era of hyperconnectivity and social networks? How can we protect it?

In her artistic approach, the director draws up an overview of cyber-malware and sextortion practices. Although these abuses affect many people, particularly teenagers, they remain little-known and unclear to the general public. The film is even more disturbing as it reveals the extent of the phenomenon. Even today, many victims pay the price or shut themselves away out of shame.

Exposing her struggle, the director acts as a spokeswoman, but above all as a defender of justice. By testifying to the suffering caused by her sextortion and the means used to combat it, she gives hope to the victims of this type of cybercrime.

During her Q&A, Patricia confesses that her main aim was to inform the masses about these scams and reduce the shame felt by the victims. In addition, Pati uses her documentary to expiate her own torments and reverse the balance of power with her persecutors. To put an end to this psychological warfare and regain power over her body, the filmmaker decides to double-cross her blackmailers by publishing the photos herself on her social media. This audacious maneuver is widely applauded.

At FIPADOC, too, the audience unanimously applauded this battle and its visual presentation.

The device used by the director has a huge impact on the tension generated by the film. It’s not a film about the Internet, but a film built online. It was essential to the director that the film’s title reflect its diary-like nature. In other words, the entire work is a diary in digital form.

From raw, non-cinematic material, Patricia uses ingenious editing to turn it all into a cinematic work of art. Collecting her own archives, she manages to put together a well-crafted story and testimony that tells the emotional story of her journey. It includes written messages, voice mails and videos captured on her phone or computer.

Dread, disgust, laughter, suspense and fear make up the palette of emotions conveyed to the viewer. Everything is done to take the spectator into the turmoil, the ups and downs, the palpitations of the investigation.

Sound takes an important role in this visually uncluttered set-up. Pati emphasized in her Q&A the work done by the sound design: keyboards clicking, hackers’ voices tampered with, everything is cleverly thought out.

This documentary demonstrates an ingenious device rarely seen in cinema. Despite its simplicity, the viewer is drawn in. Without artifice, we follow the investigation with keen interest. This is proof that there’s no need for great means to produce a touching and honest work.