# The 43 (2019)

> A two-episode Netflix docuseries that challenges the Mexican government's account of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/77052

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 2
- Episode runtime: 76 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Created by: Matías Gueilburt
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Paula Mónaco, Anabel Hernández, John Gibler, Sayuri Herrera, Mercedes Doretti, Omar García, Enrique García
- TMDB rating: 7.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9789272/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: sober, angry, somber, investigative

## What critics say

Audiences rate the docuseries mixed, with viewers drawn to its forceful challenge to the official account of the Ayotzinapa disappearances.

## Synopsis

The 43 (2019) is a Mexican documentary docuseries created by Matías Gueilburt for Netflix. Across two feature-length episodes of roughly seventy-six minutes each, it revisits the night in Iguala in 2014 when 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College vanished. Rather than following a single protagonist, the series is driven by its investigators and commentators, including journalist Anabel Hernández, writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and researcher John Gibler, who appear on camera to test the official government account against testimony, evidence, and the families' persistent search. Its engine is the question of what happened to the students and why the state's version holds together so poorly. The tone is sober, angry, and deliberate, with a journalistic rigor that recalls investigative true crime. Viewers who appreciate Making a Murderer, The Staircase, and Cartel Land will find the same blend of forensic scrutiny and political outrage. Set in 2014 Mexico against the backdrop of the drug war, the film-like docuseries is an unsparing, emotionally heavy look at impunity and institutional failure.

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