One of Germany's most acclaimed directors, Fatih Akin, hit back Saturday at criticism of his new film about a real-life serial killer, "The Golden Glove", charging that it exploits the female victims.
Akin, who won a Golden Globe award last year for his terrorism drama "In the Fade" starring Diane Kruger, insisted the ultra-violent new picture aimed to grant "dignity" to both the killer and the slain women.
"We are living in a time in which the discussion about sexual violence is everywhere and that is justified," Akin told reporters at the Berlin film festival, where the picture premiered.
"But when you make a film about sexual violence, you have to show it," he said after facing several pointed questions.
Akin said he had no desire to "glorify" violence against women with the film's scenes graphically depicting sexual torture, murder and dismemberment which many viewers said left them feeling queasy.
He said he had shown the film to pimps he knew from his hometown Hamburg's red-light district, where the movie is set.
"You can talk to them until you're blue in the face about how wrong violence against women is and #MeToo and it goes in one ear and out the other," Akin said.
"But if people who have committed violence against women say '(this movie's) too brutal for me', then maybe it's naive but I'm hopeful that the film will have an impact on them."
"If I started making movies everyone would enjoy then I wouldn't make anything truthful, dammit."
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