thechildineverwas

SYNOPSIS - THE CHILD I NEVER
WAS
Horrifyingly exquisite, The Child I Never
Was brings to life the lurid true story of
Jurgen Bartsch, a gay German
teenage serial killer who murdered a
handful of younger boys during the
'60s.

REVIEW

This dark, troubling, chilling portrait
looks into the heart of a tortured gay
teenager, whose sexual obsession led
him to commit multiple murders.
Framed by confessions (culled from
the transcripts and letters of the actual
case in the early 1960s) of the
captured 19-year-old Bartsch (Tobias
Schenke), Pieck’s artfully stunning
biography flashes back to the boy’s
childhood (where he is movingly
played by angel-faced Sebastian
Urzendowsky).

Sexually repressed by religion and his
strict, emotionally cruel adoptive
parents, and confused by a sexually
abusive Catholic priest, Bartsch caves
into his growing, truly dark impulses.
By fifteen, exclusively drawn to
prepubescent boys, he realizes the
only way to indulge his sexual cravings
and not be caught or punished is to
murder his prey. While luring boys to a
secret hideout by night, Bartsch works
in his father's butcher’s shop by day.
He appears to lack friends and his
family have no inkling of his diabolical
doings. Although a frightening and
shocking story, director Pieck is a
master storyteller and visionary.

With some of the most guiltily erotic
moments put to screen (think In a
Glass Cage), pulling few punches yet
not exploiting the story’s gory aspects,
he sucks you right into Bartsch’s tragic
existence, ultimately painting a
compelling argument for gay rights
now. If only Bartsch had felt accepted
by his family, religion and society, he
may have matured into a well-adjusted
gay man. Alas, he didn’t. (German with
English subtitles)

Lawrence Ferber