Imagine finding out that the man you had a baby with did not exist; and instead was a fictional character concocted by a conman.
This is what happened to a Parisian woman named Marianne, a victim of romance fraud by a man who led several imaginary lives.
The man known as Brazilian Ricardo – but also men named Daniel and Alexandre of different nationalities, depending on who he is speaking with – is a serial scam dater who tricked four women into falling in love with him.
He lived with these women at the same time and adapted his personality traits and life story to suit each one, leading them to think they had met ‘the one’.
Each powerful story is detailed in The Man with a Thousand Faces, a new documentary film launching on the 22 November, led by French journalist, Sonia Kronlund.
Marianne (who is played by Aurelie Gasche) was under the impression that she was dating a surgeon who’d spent years in Africa with Médecins Sans Frontières.
One day, Ricardo told her that he was in Toulouse for paediatric training, but he was in fact seeing his other wife in Krakow.
Alarm bells rang when she was five months pregnant with his child when she suddenly could not get through to him, as the phone numbers he had given her were fake.
The man, known as Brazilian Ricardo – but also Daniel and Alexandre, depending on who he is speaking with – is a serial scam dater who tricked four women into falling in love with him
When Ricardo started to suspect something was wrong in his relationships, his exit strategy was to disappear after getting a phone call to say that one of his parents had died or was in a coma.
Under the identity of Alexandre, his dating profile stated that he was 36 years old and lived in the capital of France.
He described himself as ‘shy, hard-working, and sociable’ and claimed he was a non-smoker who worked in the realm of medicine.
But other women knew him as a Peugeot engineer, doctor, and a photographer or working in telecommunications.
One victim even claims that Ricardo was simultaneously dating 15 partners.
But Ricardo – who was described as a ‘sociopath’ in the film – was running a global operation, dating women from all over the world, such as Rio, Poland and France.
Dubbed ‘charming’ by one of his victims, Ricardo would send women pictures of himself in various locations.
These include him posing in a pilot’s uniform in the cockpit of a plane, posing as a security guard, performing surgery and evening playing the bagpipes in a kilt.
Dubbed ‘charming’ by one of his victims, Ricardo would send women pictures of himself in various locations – including in a cockpit of a plane
A woman is seen in the trailer saying that she found him exchanging around 20 messages with ‘several women’
Some of the women are played by actresses in the production, however, the audience do not know who is ‘real’ and who is acting until the credits
Ricardo also sent a selfie holding up a handwritten sign saying: ‘Good morning, I love you,’ in Polish, whereas another said ‘Have a good day,’ in French. Both messages were followed by a love heart he had drawn.
But the group of women eventually uncovered his web of lies. One victim said they found out he was being unfaithful after opening his browser history and seeing the accounts he had for his multiple personalities.
Another caught on when she discovered a photo that he had sent to the mother of his baby daughter. A woman is seen in the trailer saying that she found around 20 messages with ‘several women’.
When a victim, who is a qualified psychologist, was asked why she believed his questionable tales, she said: ‘It suited me not to understand too much, according to The Times.
The filmmaker had the idea for the production after her friend was the victim of love fraud, according to Screen Daily.
Ricardo another wrote messages such as ‘Have a good day,’ in French followed by a love heart he had drawn to his victim
The man poses by a restaurant store-front that had his fake name on
Under the identity of Alexandre, his dating profile stated that he was 36 years old and lived in the capital of France
The Man with a Thousand Faces, a new documentary film launching on the 22 November, is led by French journalist, Sonia Kronlund
She fell in love with a man who had been seeing multiple women at the same time under different aliases.
This prompted Kronlund’s thirst to track down this mysterious man and confront him to try to understand the motive behind his actions.
She wondered whether his victims had a specific profile and wanted to find him to understand how his mass deception started.
And Kronlund does eventually manage to track him down in an apartment near Krakow and ends up having a conversation with him.
Some of the women are played by actresses in the production, however, the audience do not know who is ‘real’ and who is acting until the credits.
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