The filmmaker said in a statement on Saturday morning. “The first impulse to come to San Sebastián was not to abandon the film that my team and I have been working on for so many years,” said the 69-year-old. “However, I realized that while it’s time for ‘Sparta’ to speak for itself, my presence at the premiere could overshadow the film’s reception,” the director explained. At the same time he thanked festival director José Luis Rebordinos: “I am very grateful to José Luis Rebordinos for standing by ‘Sparta’ from the start, despite the pressure from the media and despite the great turbulence that suddenly ensued. That means to me very much.”
“One of his best works”
Rebordinos recently broke a lance in the APA interview for the drama about a man who struggles with his pedophile tendencies: “It’s not just one of Seidl’s best works ever. Hopefully with the premiere all the debates about the shooting will finally come to an end take a back seat. It’s an outstanding film, very elegant, and anything that might disturb or shock the viewer is off-screen.” He believes that decisions such as those made by colleagues at the Toronto festival not to show the film are wrong: “It becomes dangerous when film festivals, due to media pressure and mere accusations without evidence, start to assume the principle of guilt and not the principle of innocence.”
In “Sparta”, which now celebrates its world premiere in the competition in San Sebastián on Sunday evening, Georg Friedrich plays a man with pedophile tendencies. According to the current status, Friedrich is also not allowed to travel to San Sebastián. Research by the German news magazine “Der Spiegel” raised allegations that Seidl had confronted the underage Romanian amateur actors in the work with scenes relating to alcoholism, violence and nudity without adequate care and information for the families. Seidl strongly rejected the allegations and announced legal action. Most recently, there were other incriminating and exculpatory voices from Seidl’s environment in the Austrian weekly media “Falter” and “profil”.
Source: Nachrichten
