Summary
- In real life, Natascha's abduction led to a massive search for her, including searching over 700 white minivans in the area.
- The film leaves out the darker aspects of Natascha's relationship with her parents, who were divorced at the time of her kidnapping.
- While initially treated kindly by her captor, Natascha still suffered greatly in captivity, and her relationship with her kidnapper remains complex.
This article contains mentions of suicide, self-harm, and sexual assault.
3096 Days is a movie based on the real-life kidnapping of Austrian citizen Natascha Kampusch by Wolfgang Přiklopil. On March 2, 1998, 10-year-old Natascha was walking alone to school in Vienna. She never made it. Witness reports and a large search resulted in the conclusion that Natascha had been kidnapped and her whereabouts were unknown. Eight years later, Natascha escaped her imprisonment to the world's shock, as they had given her up for lost, and she was finally able to tell her story in her autobiography 3,096 Days in 2010. The book served as the source material for the subsequent 2013 film.
The film is directed by German-American filmmaker Sherry Hormann, and was her late husband Michael Ballhaus', famed cinematographer of Goodfellas and Broadcast News, last project. 3096 Days is a dramatic retelling of Natascha Kampusch's kidnapping, life in captivity, and eventual escape. The film stars Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Natascha (with Amelia Pidgeon briefly as the young Natascha) and Thure Lindhardt as Wolfgang Přiklopil. It's a harrowing and tensely acted movie with claustrophobic filmmaking that forces viewers into the confined space of Natascha's captivity. The film is generally true to life, but there are some parts of the tragic story left out.
Related
10 Best True Crime Movies Ranked
The best true-crime movies perfectly blend reality with fiction, and these films are particularly effective at that.
There Was A Massive Search For Natascha
In 3096 Days, Natascha is abducted early in the film and the movie quickly moves into her captivity. Little is shown about the immediate aftermath of her abduction and audiences are left to wonder how thoroughly authorities searched for the young girl. The reality is that Natascha's abduction led to a massive search for her soon after it was discovered that she had disappeared. A witness said that they had seen Natascha being dragged into a white minivan. This led to over 700 white minivans in the area being searched.
Disturbingly, Přiklopil's van matched the description and was investigated, but obviously, he was cleared (via Web Archive). Every owner of a van was questioned but Přiklopil was able to disguise his involvement to the police. His home was 20 kilometers east of Vienna and investigators did not think Natascha would have been moved so far and therefore neglected to search the property.
3096 Days is not currently available to stream online.
Natascha's Relationship With Her Parents Was Difficult
There is a subplot in 3096 that begins with Natascha and her mother Brigitta (Trine Dyrholm) getting into an argument the morning of her kidnapping, and the film implies that the fight is the reason Natascha decided to walk that day. Throughout the course of 3096 Days, the story flips to Brigitta as she experiences extreme guilt for allowing her daughter to leave the home alone. At the end of the film, Natascha's mother and father are beside themselves with happiness when she returns.
However, 3096 Days leaves out some of the darker aspects of Natascha's relationship with her parents. Far from their fight being a one-off argument, Natascha did not get along with either her mother or her father, who were divorced at the time of the kidnapping. In an interview Natascha gave with The Guardian, it is revealed that "Her divorced parents would slap and insult her. By the age of 10 she was a compulsive eater, depressed and lonely." Hormann may have thought this part of Natascha's story too grim for an already dire tale and excluded it from the narrative. Despite this, Natascha is quick to point out that her mother was not a tyrant:
Still, she adds, she hopes 3,096 Days will dispel the impression people have "that my mother was a very brutal person and that I had a better time of it in the dungeon." However hard her mother was, she was nothing like Priklopil.
Přiklopil Did Not Harm Natascha For The First Few Years
While the 3096 Days shows Přiklopil immediately physically and psychologically abusing Natascha after capturing her, the truth is a little less straightforward. There is no doubt that Natascha was kept against her will and suffered greatly at the hands of her captor, but Natascha said that she was actually treated kindly for the first few years in captivity. In her book, Natascha talks about how she regularly ate meals with Přiklopil and received expensive toys and gifts from her captor.
Though on the surface, this could be construed as kindness, it does nothing to exonerate Přiklopil for his abduction and brutal treatment of Natascha. Holding someone against their own will is abuse enough and all the minor kindnesses in the world would not have made up for her predicament. In fact, it could be argued these acts were a form of psychological torture themselves, serving only to confuse and disorient the young girl.
Natascha Did Not Attempt To Escape During The Ski Trip
In a pivotal scene in 3096 Days, Přiklopil takes Natascha on a ski trip, a sign of his waning caution in guarding her. In the film, Natascha escapes to a bathroom and tries to beg another woman to help her. However, the woman does not speak Austrian, and Natascha is unable to make herself understood. Přiklopil discovers Natascha in this attempt and beats her mercilessly as punishment. Natascha and Přiklopil did go on that ski trip, but she explains that there was no chance of escape during their "vacation" (via The Telegraph).
Natascha Has Complicated Feelings About Her Kidnapper And Captivity
3096 Days ends with Natascha's escape from Přiklopil, her reunion with her parents, and the news that Přiklopil took his own life by standing in front of a train. What the film doesn't go into is the confusing and distressing aftermath of Natascha's ordeal. The girl remained silent for some time after her escape and when she finally did speak, she insisted she wasn't a victim and instead tried to explain the complex relationship she shared with her captor. Some reporters and viewers considered this Stockholm Syndrome while others accused Natascha of sympathizing with Přiklopil.
At a time when she needed peace and support, Natascha received intense scrutiny and accusations about her character. It's true that her reaction to her captivity was unexpected. Allegedly, she cried when she heard the news that Přiklopil had taken his life, and she purchased his home in the hopes that people would not destroy the place she had essentially grown up in. Natascha is clear, however, that she understands she suffered greatly at Přiklopil's hands, but she also is consistent in explaining that she spent a significant portion of her life with the man. Despite the abuse, some sort of attachment or relationship inevitably formed between the two.
Where Natascha Kampusch Is Now
Natascha has not been afraid to tell her story after escaping the horrible nightmare of Přiklopil's home. She has written two books about her experience, 3096 Days and 10 Years of Freedom. She continues to write, and was briefly a television personality on the Austria TV channel, PULS 4, but had to leave that role due to cyberbullying (via Good To). She wrote about this experience in a third book in 2019, Cyberneider (Cyberjealous). 3096 Days is a fairly accurate look at Natascha's captivity as told by the victim, but the post-abduction struggles are an important aspect of her experience.
