Surrounded by controversy, SPARTA was shown at the San Sebastian Film Festival Competition after being pulled from the Toronto Film Festival line-up just a few days before. It’s a dense, provocative and complicated work, as it could be expected from the connection between filmmaker and subject matter. It tells the story of Ewald, a forty-something pedophile roaming some small towns in Transylvania, Romania, looking to satisfy his desires but trying at the same time to control himself and not act on his impulses. In a weird way, the “judo centers” he organizes in dilapidated buildings are a home away from home for many of the kids who attend them, since most of their parents are drunk, abusive or both. Connected with RIMINI as a two-part story about the very different sons of a dementia riddled ex Nazi (Hans-Michael Rehberg in his last role), SPARTA is a harsh, borderline repulsive but at the same time strangely compelling portrait of a man trying to fight his own demons in ways that are not particularly effective. The story of a lost soul, a wanderer, a victim and a victimizer.