Pedophiles in the movies: Nasty philistines and poor devils

The Teichtmeister case has sparked a debate in Austria about how to deal with pedophilia. This hot topic comes up more often in films than you might think. The approach oscillates between mystification and compassion: an overview.

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Pedophilia is a touchy subject – in just about every way imaginable. A positive aspect of the Teichtmeister case is that it stimulated a reasonably factual discourse about it in Austria. Nevertheless, it is foreseeable that the open, serious confrontation with pedophilic tendencies and the sometimes resulting abuse will remain an implicit taboo in the long run.
One could assume that the medium of film, which tends to be more geared towards majority ability, also shies away from this difficult, often polemic material.

There are surprisingly many films that try to approach it in a serious way. The fact that very few of them can be found in the subscriptions of the streaming services testifies to their low market value as “entertainment” (accordingly, these streaming tips are not to be understood as recommendations for a “nice TV evening”). But their availability for rent and purchase from various providers proves that there is an interest in education here – apart from sensationalistic true crime formats like “To Catch a Predator”.

In feature films, Austria is a frontrunner here, probably also due to cases of abuse that are prominent in the media (Přiklopil, Fritzl). Not only Ulrich Seidl’s recent film “Sparta” portrays pedophiles (a topos that Seidl already discussed in “Paradies hope” touched) with a carefully balanced mix of closeness and distance. Also Markus Schleinzer’s directorial debut „Michael“, which premiered in Cannes in 2011, stays with its title character throughout its run – a disturbingly bourgeois abuser struggling to maintain a facade of normalcy. Two works by Sebastian Meise (“Great Freedom”) are less speculative: During the feature film “still life” The long-term documentary tells in a rather undramatic way how a family deals with the father’s pedophilia (acted out only as a role-playing game with prostitutes). „Outing“ a pedophile student in his – also therapeutic – pursued endeavor to learn to live with his tendency.

Meanwhile, Barbora Chalupová’s and Vít Klusák’s Czech documentary aims to indict and shake people up “Caught in the Net” that investigates the dangers of pedosexual cybercrime to children. Child abuse in the context of the church is also discussed in Arthaus productions – for example in François Ozons “God be praised” oder Pedro Almodóvars “Bad Education”.

If one moves from Europe to the USA, at first glance the desire for differentiated discussion dwindles. Hollywood cinema likes to portray pedophiles as demonic evildoers – as in horror dramas „Black Phone“, in which Ethan Hawke even wears a devil mask in the role of the evil “child-eater”. Or in fantasy drama „The Lovely Bones“told from the perspective of the dead victim of a sinister girl killer (Stanley Tucci).

There was already Fritz Langs “M – A City Seeks a Murderer” (1931), in which Peter Lorre plays a pathological sexual predator, less mystifying. And he also didn’t indulge in grotesque fantasies of revenge – like the psychological thriller does „Hard Candy“ tut.
Even in a fundamentally humanistic film like Sean Baker’s „The Florida Project“ an episode in which an alleged pedophile gets too close to a playground bears traits of undisguised disgust. Admittedly, in the United States, the (moral) panic surrounding pedophile sex offenders particularly often exceeds the level of legitimate security concerns. It is no coincidence that so many conspiracy theories that have emerged there and spread worldwide have a pedo-criminal component. Nevertheless, there are also examples of more complex perspectives on the hot topic in US cinema.

An example with a star cast is the (almost too softly drawn) purification melodrama „The Woodsman“: Kevin Bacon stars as a remorseful child molester struggling for a new life after spending a long time in prison. Similarly, but a lot more bitterly, Todd Field (whose film “Tár” has Oscar prospects this year) casts the pedophile character in the suburban cast „Little Children“ The former child actor and now character actor Jackie Earle Haley, who has long subscribed to aesthetically or otherwise disconcerting types, impresses as a mentally unstable exhibitionist whose resocialization fails not least because of the prejudices of his environment.

Back to Europe: Thomas Vinterbergs criticizes hasty prejudice even more explicitly “The hunt“. A childcare worker (Mads Mikkelsen) gets caught in the crossfire of his insecure village community after a girl’s thoughtless comments. And the victims of abuse? They are rarely the focus of feature films – perhaps most often even in genre cinema. A more recent example: the hallucinatory Stephen King film adaptation „Gerald’s Game“. A coming-of-age film like Gregg Arakis „Mysterious Skin“ on the other hand, which directly addresses the aftershocks of abuse trauma, is not found in local streaming areas at all. Regrettable.

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