The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann Unearths Terrifying Questions

With the 10th anniversary of Madeleine McCann's still unexplained disappearance re-rattling Britain in 2017, Chris Smith decided to dig in.

"Coming into this, I had no idea how many people's lives were affected by this story," Smith, who most recently directed the cultural catnip that was Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, told The Atlantic.

The result of two years of interviews, compiling archival footage, shooting reenactments and immersing himself in the media hysteria that ensued when 3-year-old Madeleine vanished on the evening of May 3, 2007, while her family was vacationing in Portugal unfolds starting Friday on Netflix in the eight-part docu-series The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

And like many a deep dive into a shocking event that has lodged itself in so many minds, and that in this case had no chance of resulting in a tidy conclusion, it doesn't arrive without controversy.

"We did not see and still do not see how this program will help the search for Madeleine and, particularly given there is an active police investigation, could potentially hinder it," Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said in a statement released March 6 on their website. "Consequently, o­­ur views and preferences are not reflected in the program."

The McCanns have participated in other shows, including the BBC's Madeleine McCann: 10 Years On, but opted not to revisit the worst night of their lives, as well as the endlessly nightmarish days that followed, for the film, which was directed by Smith and executive produced by Emma Cooper and Thomas Benski.

"We're trying to lay out as much detail as we can about the case," Cooper told E! News, "and it could jog someone's memory in some way then that would be amazing. Keeping any search for what happened to Madeleine in the consciousness—particularly globally—is something that's so important. As we show in the documentary, other children are found—so you have to hope."