The Man Without a Heart is a documentary thriller that immerses the viewer in one of the most enigmatic and unknown unsolved cases of the last ten years. Produced for discovery+ by Cuarzo Producciones (Banijay Iberia), the documentary will exclusively be available on discovery+ worldwide. A gripping and disturbing journey that takes us through Sweden, Spain and England to delve into the story of the death of a Spanish
citizen in strange circumstances, Miguel Ángel Martínez, from Spain, who appears dead floating in a fiord and the forensics found out that the heart and a piece of liver were missing.
Directed by Jorge Varcárcel, this is the story of an unsolved case, registered as an improbable suicide and involving a police intrigue with enormous repercussions. It is also the story of a family willing to fight for the truth with all its consequences. The Man Without a Heart transcends the criminological tale to become a puzzle of real characters who unravel a story full of unknowns, guided by the inquisitive work of a tenacious woman.
The story On the night of September 29, 2005, Blanca Martínez receives a call that will change her life and that of her family forever. The body of her brother Miguel Ángel Martínez Santamaría, a 45-year-old Basque, has been found in an advanced state of decomposition floating on the shore of a fjord in one of Stockholm’s most affluent neighborhoods. According to the coroner’s report, Miguel Ángel had died from drowning. At this point everything pointed to suicide. According to the Swedish police, the Basque citizen had jumped into the sea from one of the ferries linking Helsinki and Stockholm. His identification was possible because in one of his pockets there was a photocopy of his ID card. Coincidentally, this photocopy was found by a Spanish nurse who was working at the Forensic Institute that day. It was the Bilbao police who informed Miguel Ángel’s mother of what had happened. A few days later, two of Miguel Ángel’s cousins traveled to Stockholm to repatriate the body. They were never able to see the body of their relative. The excuse was that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Miguel Ángel’s burial wish had always been to be laid to rest in England. He had lived there for a long time and the woman who had been his girlfriend for many years was also buried there, however within the coffin that travels to London arrives the body of a man without a heart. Who does the corpse belong to? Is it really Miguel Ángel? Under what circumstances did he die? And what has happened to his heart? From that moment, Blanca Martínez sets out to solve the mystery of the man without a heart. A story where nothing is what it seems, with contradictory police versions, an obstructed journalistic investigation and the drama of a family struggling to find out the truth.
Who is Miguel Ángel? Miguel Ángel Martínez Santamaría, ‘Mikel’ to his family and friends, had left his home in Algorta five months earlier (April 2005) with 11,000 euros in his account, a pension of 600 euros and a backpack. He had just turned 45 and his adventurous spirit had already led him to travel abroad on several occasions. The Nordic countries were among his favorite destinations and after several weeks of traveling, his adventures led him to Sweden, a country, that unbeknownst to him, he would never make it out of alive.
The Man Without A Heart will be exclusively available on discovery+ from April 29th, the definitive non-fiction, real life subscription streaming service now available from
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