Protecting a cannibals image

last updated 8 January 2015

Frankfurt, Germany

A German court last week banned the German release of a film based on the life of convicted cannibal Armin Meiwes, saying the movie would invade his privacy. The English-language film, Butterfly, stars Felicity’s Keri Russell as a detective investigating the Internet underworld of cannibals. The plot mirrors Meiwes’ crime. In 2002, Meiwes met a willing victim on the Internet, and the two cut off, cooked, and ate several of the man’s body parts before he expired of blood loss. Then Meiwes ate some more. Lawyers for Atlantic Streamline, the U.S. production company that made the film, are appealing. “There is a right to freedom of artistic expression,” lawyer Helge Sasse said. “What the court said was, a horror movie is not real art.”