2023-09-06 05:03:24
On the poster of the film “Corsage”, the actor was sentenced this Tuesday, September 5 to two years in prison suspended for possession and production of child pornography. A scandal that shook Austria, and prompted the government to increase the penalties.
The case had upset the Austrian cultural world and led to a wave of deprogramming of the film Corsage. This Tuesday, September 5, star actor Florian Teichtmeister, who played Emperor Franz Joseph in this historic feature film, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for possession and production of child pornography.
Indicted in mid-January, the 43-year-old actor was accused of having obtained around 76,000 documents online, between February 2008 and August 2021. Among the files accumulated, half involved victims aged 7 to 14 years old. The Austrian actor had modified a large number of them, making collages, slideshows and video montages. Acts that should not be “minimized”, said prosecutor Julia Kalmar, who had requested a prison sentence. “Consumers determine the market, even if Florian Teichtmeister did not attack a child himself”, she had underlined.
Florian Teichtmeister, who admitted the facts, took note of the decision and will be placed in a specialized medical center. “I sincerely and deeply regret my actions and I want to apologize,” he had previously said at the helm. Following a therapy work started at the time of the launch of the investigation two years ago, the actor now says he understands that “behind each image hides sexual violence”.
Fired from the Burgtheater and banned from public television
The actor starred in Corsage, a biopic about Empress Sissi directed by Marie Kreutzer and released in France in December. The film, which met with great success in theaters, had been shot before the appearance of “rumors in the fall of 2021”, specified its production. Worn by actress Vicky Krieps, who plays Sissi, the feature film had been presented at nearly 70 festivals.
Among them: the Cannes festival last year, in the category “Un certain regard”. Hailed for her performance, Vicky Krieps won the prize for best performance. Also in the running for the Bafta, the prestigious British film awards, Corsage was finally overtaken by scandal when the actor was charged, and removed from the list of Oscar nominees for best foreign film.
The Cineplexx cinema chain, which manages 400 theaters in twelve countries – including Austria, Italy and Greece – had meanwhile taken the decision to withdraw the film from the poster. In Vienna, the prestigious national theater Burgtheater, where the actor was a member, announced his dismissal. For its part, the Austrian public television ORF has undertaken to no longer produce or broadcast projects with Florian Teichtmeister.
Beyond the actor’s career, the affair has sparked a lively controversy over the silence of the cultural elites in Austria. In the process, the government proposed a revision of the penal code, which should be adopted by Parliament this fall according to the Ministry of Justice. The penalties for this type of offence, deemed “ridiculously weak” by the political class, will be increased, with a possible sentence of 10 years for the production of a “large number of representations” of a child pornography nature.
1693982302
#Austrian #actor #Florian #Teichtmeister #sentenced #possession #child #pornography #Liberation