1968, Mexico City. An Italian count is found dead in the swimming pool of a villa. His mother-in-law, a high-society lady and renowned artist, is accused of being the culprit. As the case becomes a media sensation and she continues to sell her artwork from prison, it is revealed that there was someone else in the villa—the count’s wife and daughter. An original project based on a Mexican true crime case, written with the gripping style of bestselling author Santiago Roncagliolo.
1968 was a controversial year for Mexico, marked by the Olympic Games, student massacres, and one of the country’s most sensational true crime cases of the 20th century: the Bassi family case, involving members of Mexico’s elite.
Count d’Acquaronte was found dead, floating in his swimming pool, murdered with five gunshots. The prime suspect was Sofía Bassi, a renowned artist and the count’s mother-in-law.
The solution seemed straightforward—Sofía was found with the murder weapon, and forensic tests confirmed she had fired the gun. However, that night, the family’s lawyer, Javier Méndez Palacios, arrived at the house to speak with Sofía, but she refused to cooperate. Javier sensed that something in the evidence didn’t add up. He suspected that behind the surface, there was more than met the eye.
Meanwhile, the media spread the case internationally, and many Western politicians assumed Mexico would exonerate a high-society woman, even at the expense of an Italian nobleman.
The case took a shocking turn when it was discovered that someone else had been in the house at the time of the murder—someone no one had mentioned before: Claire, Sofía’s daughter and the count’s widow.
So, who killed the count? Was it Sofía, who remains in prison painting and selling her artwork? Or was it Claire, the daughter forced by her family to marry the count at a very young age?
KEY DETAILS: Caso Bassi (The Bassi Case) is an original project inspired by a real crime that took place in Mexico, considered one of the most complex cases in Latin American history.
A family that seemingly had it all, yet found itself caught in an intense media, political, and social scrutiny.
Roncagliolo narrates this gripping story from the perspective of the lawyer who handled the case.
We can find audiovisual references in works such as: House of Gucci, The Virgin Suicides and Acapulco 68, a documentary about the case.
Santiago Roncagliolo is one of the most highly acclaimed contemporary Latin American writers. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, his works have been translated into over twenty languages and some have been adapted for film and television.
He has won prestigious awards, including the Alfaguara Novel Prize, El Barco de Vapor Children’s Literature Award, and the Luces Award. As a translator, he was a finalist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.
SCREEN ADAPTATION POTENTIAL: TV Series, Miniseries, Feature Film, TV Movie.
AVAILABLE LANGUAGES: Spanish.
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