Who am I? Where did I come from? These are questions that people have been asking themselves for generations. Whether it is down to self-reflection and some profound deep-dive it one’s own psyche or asked in a more literal sense, the need to know oneself has ignited a booming market in genealogy services that is valued at around 3 billion dollars and growing. But where some may discover interesting familial tidbits or surprising genetic links to famous historical figures, for the group of siblings at the heart of Netflix’s latest documentary film, Our Father, their discovery uncovered a shocking tale of deception that spanned decades and rocked an entire community.

Despite the human race’s innate biological need to reproduce, it is an unfortunate fact of life that a significant number of couples struggle to conceive naturally, in fact, according to google and the NHS website, around 1 in 7 couples are affected by infertility. And whilst artificial insemination, surrogates and sperm donors are now more commonplace, back in the 70’s and 80’s in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) was still something of an emerging field. As a highly renowned fertility specialist within this field and with a remarkably high success rate, Dr. Donald Cline was a beacon of hope to many in the state of Indianapolis.

Delivered via the tried-and-tested documentary playbook of talking head interviews, dramatic reenactments, archival footage and a foreboding soundtrack to build tension at the opportune times, Our Father successfully and sensitively navigates the complex emotions, religious connotations and lack of legal precedent that permeate the story without pointing blame to anyone or anything other than Donald Cline himself.

It’s only right then that the story is fronted by sibling #1, Jacoba Ballard, as it was her ancestry test that began to pull at the threads of Cline’s deception. From her initial discovery of seven half-siblings she was the driving force of the investigation; filing complaints with the General Attorney’s office, reaching out to the media and providing an understanding shoulder to cry on for every new sibling that is discovered.

Rather than focusing on a timeline of Donald Cline’s transgressions which were perverse and abusive in ways that should be unimaginable but are actually, rather depressingly, not particularly surprising, Lucie Jourdan’s harrowing documentary film instead chooses to tell the story from the victims point of view.

The husbands who provided samples for their wives, believing that the babies they raised were biologically theirs only to find out decades later that they shared no genetic link at all with their children. The mothers who sat waiting in the consultation room, naked from the waist down with their feet in stirrups and their sexual organs exposed, oblivious to the fact that their fertility doctor was masturbating in another room providing a fresh sample of donor sperm that they did not consent to use and was then inserted into their cervix by a man still under the euphoric effects of an orgasmic release.

And the children who discovered the truth behind their conception and uncovered the scale of Cline’s deception. The genetic health issues they suffer from because Cline used his own sperm, sperm that would not have passed the screening process. The feelings they have every time a new sibling is discovered, at the time of release, the number of known siblings was 94 and still growing.

If Donald Cline’s heinous acts of depravity and deception aren’t captivating enough for all you true crime fans out there then Lucie Jourdan’s powerful and sensitive delivery of a highly emotive story will surely win you over.

Our Father is now available to stream on Netflix.