A fire inside a billionaire’s fortified Monaco penthouse should have had a clear explanation. Instead, it became one of the most contested and unsettling criminal cases of the modern era. Netflix’s documentary Murder in Monaco revisits the 1999 death of banking magnate Edmond Safra – a story shaped by secrecy, fear, and a chain of events that still refuses to feel settled.
Part investigative reconstruction and part psychological portrait of a world built on privacy, the movie moves through contradictions rather than easy conclusions. It is true crime told with restraint, where the most chilling moments are often the ones that remain unresolved. Here is everything you need to know about Murder in Monaco – from the plot and cast to reviews. The trailer is at the bottom of the article.
Murder in Monaco: All the key details
- Title: Murder in Monaco
- Format: Movie
- Runtime / Episodes: Feature-length documentary film
- Genre: True crime, documentary
- Country of production: United Kingdom
- Original language: English
- Release date: December 17, 2025
- Director / Creator: Hodges Usry
- Lead cast: Journalists, investigators, and case voices featured in interviews
- Produced by: Netflix
What Murder in Monaco is about
Murder in Monaco centers on the death of Edmond Safra, one of the world’s richest and most influential private bankers, who was found dead in his Monaco penthouse after a fire broke out inside the apartment in 1999. The official Netflix synopsis frames it starkly: a powerful man dies behind locked doors, and what follows is a case that refuses to sit neatly in a single narrative.
The documentary traces the atmosphere around the investigation and the courtroom fallout, placing as much emphasis on uncertainty as on evidence. It is less interested in spectacle than in how competing versions of truth take shape when money, security, and reputation are part of the story’s gravitational pull.
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Murder in Monaco cast: the main characters
Because this is a documentary, the film’s “cast” is made up of the people who help tell the story – journalists who covered the case, investigators and legal voices who illuminate the official record, and individuals connected to the events who can speak to what the headlines could not capture. Their presence gives the documentary its tension: not through dramatization, but through the friction between what is known, what is claimed, and what still feels unanswered.
At the center of it all is Edmond Safra, presented through context and consequence rather than biography. The film’s focus stays on the conditions of the case and the lingering questions the public has carried for decades, rather than turning the story into a clean, closed file.
Is Murder in Monaco based on a true story?
Yes. Murder in Monaco is based on real events and revisits the 1999 death of Edmond Safra in Monaco, along with the investigation and legal proceedings that followed.
What reviews say about Murder in Monaco
Early coverage positions the film as a sober, investigative entry in Netflix’s true-crime slate, leaning into intrigue and unanswered questions rather than sensational twists. The tone suggested by Netflix’s own framing is “riveting” and investigative, with the story built around the mystery and the competing theories that have persisted around the case.
Why watch Murder in Monaco
If you enjoyed The Staircase or American Murder: The Family Next Door, this film fits naturally into that space, blending investigative tension with the quiet dread of a case where certainty never feels complete. It is true crime as a study of pressure – how stories harden, how doubts survive, and how the most protected lives can still collapse in an instant.
Murder in Monaco release date on streaming
Murder in Monaco is now streaming on Netflix. Release date: December 17, 2025. Watch on Netflix:
Watch the trailer
Here’s the trailer to get a first taste.
