Is Netflix’s Dear Child based on a true story? Details explored

Romy Hausman’s international best-selling novel Dear Child has been brought on-screen by streaming giant Netflix in collaboration with Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Pörksen.

The German mini-series has garnered attention from thriller fans, all of whom have the same question - Apart from being a film adaptation of a novel, is the show based on a true story?

The answer to that is no. The show is strictly a novel-to-screen adaptation and the screenplay has been penned down by the creators themselves.

Netflix's Dear Child released six episodes primarily dubbed in English and German on September 7, 2023.

---

Dear Child by Netflix and Constantin Television is inspired by the Romy Hausman novel

Originally titled Liebes Kind, the German novel by Romy Hausman has been the source from which the Netflix mini-series has derived its storyline.

The plot of Dear Child has been revealed to be fictional with no resemblance to any person dead or alive.

Dear Child cast features Kim Riedle from the fame of Skylines (2019) who plays Lena Beck, Naila Schuberth (Bird Box: Barcelona) as Lena’s 12-year-old daughter named Hannah and Sammy Schrein (German Crime Story: Gefesselt) who takes on the role of 8-year-old Jonathan.

The trio emerge from captivity and a mind-boggling mystery unravels leading to clues on a 13-year-old missing persons case.

The storyline of the show by IMDb states:

"A mysterious woman's escape from her harrowing captivity points investigators toward the dark truth behind an unsolved disappearance 13 years earlier."

When asked about the inspiration behind the story which made the series climb to the #3 position on Netflix's TV Shows Today section, creator and writer Isabel Kleefeld spoke to Netflix:

“I read the book in one night and saw the whole story very vividly in my mind. The material fascinated me immediately. Dear Child is told from the point of view of each of the participants, and the perspective changes again and again. The result is an exciting game with reality, a puzzle that the audience can always add to and reassemble. It is the story of a crime that has many victims, directly or indirectly.”

Co-creator Julian Pörksen added to the topic elaborating how the many layers of a book have been brought onto the big screen:

“What do you have to change, rewrite? Because Dear Child draws its tension from different, very subjective perspectives. The thrill results from the question whose perception you can trust.”

Hausmann was delighted to have her story climb onto the list of Netflix novel adaptations. She spoke to Netflix and said:

“I hope my readers feel like I did: There will be many things that are familiar from the book, and at the same time it will feel totally new. There also is, for example, a new character (Aida Kurt), who really excited me because she lives the complete opposite of the perpetrator’s imagination. It’s subtle and incredibly well told. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Dear Child is an eerie reminder of Brie Larson's Academy Award-winning breakthrough performance in Room (2015).