1. A method for verifying an identity of an individual based upon facial expressions as exhibited in a query video of the individual, comprising: receiving, by a processor, a reference video for each one of a plurality of different individuals, wherein a plurality of facial gesture encoders is extracted from at least one frame of the reference video describing one or more facial expressions of each one of the plurality of different individuals; receiving, by the processor, the query video; calculating, by the processor, a similarity score for the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals based on an analysis that compares a plurality of different action units (AU) values of the at least one frame of the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals to a plurality of different AU values extracted from at least one frame of the query video; and providing, by the processor, a ranking of a top N individuals of the plurality of different individuals based upon the similarity score that is calculated for the each one of the plurality of different individuals.