New Netflix film with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes gets ‘trigger warning’ from ‘devastated’ viewers -Ruth Lawes and Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro

Netflix viewers have been left with ‘faces full of tears’ after watching Daughters (Picture: Netflix)

Netflix fans have insisted a new heartbreaking movie with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score should have a trigger warning for leaving them ‘in a shambles’.

Viewers have been sobbing over ’emotionally raw’ and ‘powerful’ feature documentary Daughters, which follows daughters reuniting with their jailed dads for a one-off dance at a Washington DC prison.

The Date With Dad programme is designed to strengthen family ties and prevent reoffending with 95% of the fathers participating never returning to jail in the 12 years since it launched.

The Netflix documentary sheds light on the scheme, which sees dads commit to group sessions for 10 weeks before culminating in the dance, and has been a hit with critics and viewers alike.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Daughters has a rare perfect 100% score from over 50 critics’ reviews, while X users have been left ‘messed up’ after witnessing the ‘pride, joy and love’ between the dads and their daughters.

@ProducerStewart warned: ‘Trigger warning! #daughters on #netflix will have you in tears! It’s a documentary that follows inmates in their families as they prepare for a father-daughter dance in a DC jail.’

Ciarra (@Csquared817) chimed in: ‘Daughters on Netflix broke my damn heart. This should be required viewing upon entry for men with daughters. Ain’t no way you can’t understand the pain you’re causing your children after watching this.’

Meanwhile, @DeeGlow praised Daughters for being ‘so beautifully done; as they admitted they ‘cried for the entire two hours’.

@Meg_FullofJoie then joked: ‘Bruh who let me watch #Daughters on Netflix. I was not prepared to cry like this.’

@maurachanz said Daughters had left them ‘in a shambles’, while @Leauxness revealed they had been ‘sobbing’ and @kopykwotes commented to admit they were ‘all messed up.’

‘I’ll be shocked if I see a better documentary for the rest of the year,’ declared @EzraCubero, while @novemdeciem said they had been ‘in pain’ watching it as they urged their followers to watch Daughter as well.

@gr8_BRITian added: ‘I am a face full of tears watching #Daughters on Netflix. The pride, the joy, the love the Date with Dad dance must’ve brought, such a beautiful moment.’

Mark’s story

Mark’s daughter Santana said she was over crying when he was jailed (Picture: Netflix)

One of the prisoner’s stories who is featured in Daughters is that of Mark, who has spent most of his life in prison, where he was better known as ‘Murder.’

He said the origin of his nickname was a ‘long story’ but over the years he was in and out of a cell, it eventually evolved into Murdock.

Whether he was Murder, Murdock or Mark, the dad was a fixture in jail, never managing to spend more than six months in the outside world once released before reoffending.

But that was until he enrolled in a ‘life-changing’ programme at a Washington DC jail. Now, Mark has been living at home with his family for four years and counting.

Before becoming a changed man, Mark’s crimes devastated his young daughter Santana, who aged 10 said she was ‘sick’ of seeing herself cry each time her father was put behind bars again.

Continually exasperated over her father’s crimes, she vowed never to shed ‘even one single tear’ if his pattern of reoffending persisted, as she told filmmakers in Daughters.

A unique programme allows daughters to reunite with their fathers in prison (Picture: Netflix)

She was asked what she would say to Mark, who was then incarcerated if she had free rein. Her words were bruising.

‘Next time you get out of jail, next time you go back to jail, I’m not gonna even shed one single tear,’ Santana said, envisaging her father.

‘I’m done shedding tears because he keeps doing bad stuff he shouldn’t be doing. It’s not OK. It’s affecting me.’

Sitting in a car as the rain pounded on the windows, Santana also told the documentary makers how Mark’s absence was having a profound effect on her future decision-making. It made her never want to have children.

She said: ‘Never in my life will I ever, ever be a mother. You can give me a million dollars, I’m still not going to be a mother, I don’t care. I can have a husband. I will get married at 35. And if I do have kids, I’m having kids at 45.’

Mark became Santana’s father aged just 16 but had not watched her grow up and reach all the usual milestones because he was in prison.

He was rarely able to see her as in-person visits to jail, known as touch visits, were scaled back in the US in 2014.

Santana said she was ‘really happy’ her father kept his promise (Picture: Netflix)

According to Daughters, very few prisons now allow touch visits and in its place families can contact their incarcerated loved ones via video call for a fee.

But not-for-profit organisation Girls For A Change is trying to change that through its unique and radical Date With Dad programme.

Prisoners on the programme must complete a 10-week course with a fatherhood coach and are rewarded with an in-person dance with their daughters.

Mark was one of the fathers who successfully participated in Date With Dad. After he danced with Santana, he promised ‘never to leave’ her again.

‘You want me to stay in your life forever?’ he asked her, in what felt like the first time he realised the best way to ensure that was to keep on the straight and narrow.

Mark is not the only father to have turned their back on a life of crime thanks to the Date With Dad Programme. In the 12 years since it launched, 95% of the fathers enrolled have never returned to jail.

Mark’s fresh start happened shortly after the dance with Santana when he was released. It has now been four years since he was last behind bars and he has not reoffended. It’s a personal record for him.

Mark said: ‘The father-daughter dance, it was different. Like I said, there were no touch visits and so for me being able to hug my daughter and play fight as she likes that…for me to do that, it was definitely amazing.

95% of men who participate in the programme do not re-offend (Picture: Netflix)

‘For those six hours, I wasn’t incarcerated. My mind was literally with my daughter. When it was time for me to go I was confused. I was like, “Wait a minute, I’m not going home with my daughter?” It was definitely amazing.

‘Throughout my whole life I’ve never stayed out of prison for more than – I want to say – six months.

‘Me just being able to spend time with my daughter while I was locked up when they did the dance…it’s going on four years and I haven’t been arrested.

‘It was definitely life-changing for me.’

Now, Santana is no longer shedding tears. She told the programme makers: ‘He’s done well. He’s done it. He’s done what we was talking about. I’m just happy.’

Daughters ended with Mark celebrating Santana’s 13 birthday with a cake and a meal at a buffet restaurant. Normal family activities that he no longer takes for granted… thanks to a dance.

Daughters is available to stream on Netflix now.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

Entertainment – MetroRead More