STIGMA

A film by Peter Jeschke and Jens Wagner
A recording studio. Two music stands. Two microphones. Two men. One around the age of 40, the other at the end of his 60s. The younger one asks, curious and interested. "When did you discover your inclination? "Have you ever pursued your fantasies? "Did you ever try to realize that? "How did your wife react? The older one answers: Directly. Open. Ruthlessly with himself. He is pedophile. Has been sexually attracted to young girls since he was a teenager himself. For years he fought against it, hoped for a long time that it would go away again. But it didn't go away. Not even under the influence of alcohol. The man has taken guilt on himself. He sexually abused his own daughter. And must live with it. He did therapy and learned to accept his sexual inclination, to control it. He has met other men who feel the same way he does. And he has learned that his sexual preference cannot be cured, but that he can take responsibility for his sexual behavior. He fights, wants to be a good person. But he has to live with what he did to his own daughter. He faces this argument, accepts that his daughter doesn't want to see him and stands by his guilt.
Can someone who has loaded such great guilt on himself become happy at all? And is he allowed to do that? The conversation really took place. In the summer of 2015, at the Institute for Sexology and Sexual Medicine of the Charité in Berlin, we spoke to a patient of the prevention project "don't offend". Four times, for a total of around ten hours. The actors Godehard Giese (Asking Questions) and Hendrik Arnst (Pedophile Man) read the original text, which was only shortened.