Vienna, Sep 9 (EFE) .- The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has canceled the premiere, scheduled for today, of “Sparta”, a film about pedophilia directed by the Austrian Ulrich Seidl, accused by a German magazine of having mistreated the children who participated in the filming.
“This film has been withdrawn from the Festival. We apologize for the inconvenience,” the Festival announces on its website.
Filmed in 2019 in poor villages in northwestern Romania, the film tells the story of an Austrian man in the midst of a life crisis with pedophile impulses, who teaches judo to minors in abandoned schools.
According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, the minors who participated in the filming were pressured to record violent scenes half-naked, in which situations of alcoholism were recreated without their families being previously informed about the film’s theme.
“We were glad that they gave us money; we thought we would become famous, we didn’t know what it was about,” the mother of one of the minors, who were between 9 and 16 years old, told Romanian television this week.
Seidl himself, who denies the accusations, had confirmed to the Austrian news agency APA that he would personally participate in the film’s premiere in Canada.
The nature of some of the scenes – in one of them a child is in his underwear in the presence of a naked adult who is shaving his pubic hair – caused, during filming, moments of tension that reached the ears of the Romanian Police.
The Romanian authorities closed an investigation last February as none of the six minors questioned had reported having suffered abuse of any kind.
However, the Romanian Police resumed the investigation this week as a result of “the information that appeared in the public space about possible infractions committed against minors due to the realization of a cinematographic production.”
Seidl has defended himself in the Austrian press by assuring that he never crossed “ethical and moral boundaries during filming”.
However, the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI), which provided 1.3 million euros for two Seidl films – including “Sparta” – has opened an investigation into what happened.
The film is scheduled to be screened at the San Sebastian Festival, which will be held between September 16 and 24, and in which Seidl’s film will compete for the Golden Shell.
The Festival’s management stated last Monday that “only a court order” would lead to suspending the screening.
(c) EFE Agency
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2024/05/04/3961302-80420748-2560-1440.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
