PHOTOS: Cannibal Armin Meiwes (left) found a willing victim on the Internet (Times); Goth makeup instructions (right).Germany had waited more than three years for this moment of cinema. The chattering in the back seats stopped, the popcorn was set aside and there was a silent consensus that this was not the right time to continue munching on a hot dog.
Only 18 people came to the showing in the 262-seat cinema and 12 of them were Goths -- tattooed, pierced, and impatient for blood. “Rubbish!” hissed Anita behind me, “the original is so much better!” — the original being the grainy video made by Meiwes himself. Anita, an East Berliner with contacts in the snuff video scene, said it had been doing the rounds for two years.This was "Rohtenburg," probably the most stomach-churning German film of recent times. On screen, the award-winning actor Thomas Kretschmann, playing the cannibal Armin Meiwes, reached the pivotal moment: when he attempts to bite off the penis of a software engineer.
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This — and the truly grisly details of the subsequent meal — really happened. In 2001 Meiwes, a computer technician and former sergeant-major, used Internet chat rooms to seek out someone who was willing to be slaughtered and eaten. He found a Berliner, Bernd Jürgen Brandes, and invited him to his home. After swallowing cough medicine and vodka to dull the pain, Brandes allowed the cannibal to have his way.
Meiwes deposited most of the body in the freezer and ate his way through a surprisingly large amount. When the meat started to run out he began looking for another victim. “Bernd told me he did not want to be left alone in the deep freeze,” he told the court.
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Miewes was eventually sentenced to life in prison, but he has been determined to protect himself against any invasion of privacy. When Rohtenburg was proposed by the director Martin Weisz, the cannibal fought tooth and nail, as it were, to have it banned — and the courts supported him initially.
Although the film was nominally a work of fiction, Meiwes found 88 facts that were identical to his biography. However, the ruling was overturned by the High Court last month and so the film — which has already won prizes in Spain and Sweden — could be shown in Germany at last.
Preview night at the Astra cinema, Berlin, should have been bursting at the seams with journalists keen to celebrate a victory for freedom of speech. Sadly, The Times was the only reporting presence. Perhaps the others had pressing engagements; perhaps they merely wanted to keep their dinners in their stomachs.
The case has raised important questions. How has the Internet changed the relationship between perpetrator and victim? What if the prey has declared that he wants to be killed and eaten? Where are the boundaries of the law and of civilization?
The film tries to explain the motives behind such an unnatural act, and although much of it is cod psychology, it does stay true to the facts. More>>
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