Pervert Park

As well made as the film is, it has bad intentions. We are presented with paedophiles telling their own life stories. They dwell massively on their own misfortunes and when compelled to divulge their heinous crimes, portray them as the result of, in 5 individual cases, entrapment, Lolita-esque provocation, one's own incestuous abuse, the stresses of being secretly homosexual, and work stress in general.

It goes without saying that none of these are even slightly mitigating factors. Entrapment might be morally dubious, but when offered to have sex with a young girl by an anonymous chatroom member, a normal person refuses. A normal person would not respond to the perceived "provocation" of a young girl. Being a closeted homosexual does not win any "oppression points" that can be discounted against the rape of young boys. Must I continue?

The real point is that none of these people are shown to have faced their true culpability: they indulge in victimhood narratives, and the filmmakers indulge them too. They still identify with the demons inside them, rather than being willing to cast them out. They attempt to win sympathy and to glom onto a liberal narrative that protects the outcasts.

Those who judge this film "thought provoking" have to tell the rest of society just how much sympathy, built into them by this film, they can have left once the damage these people have done is plainly accounted for. Under the presumption that we should take a philosophical mode of thought on this issue, why don't we ask ourselves what magnitude of evil could then not be forgiven, so long as the perpetrator was sufficiently downtrodden himself?

Sad stories to make an offender. Why would they pass that life onto another generation. I think it was open and honest. It was hard to watch at times. Their crimes are horrific. The crimes that normalised their behaviour are horrific. Their minds were altered at a time when their brains were learning how to cope with childhood issues. They were abused. I really find it hard to understand, Why carry on the abuse. Thinking about it though. Childhood memories make your world. I have two children and the thought of anyone sexually abusing them, makes me feel physically sick. I knowI could kill to protect them.

People nowadays can rationalize everything. From bizarre religious beliefs, weird sexual practices to outrageous political ideas...

Everything in relative and if one uses the right words and the correct approach everything becomes legit, OK, mainstream, acceptable.

Pervert Park is one more example of this abominable trend. The directors/producers cherry-picked a few sex offenders, transformed them in victims instead of perpetrators...showing that underneath the monster face there is a human being who needs an opportunity, a chance at redemption.

OK. I agree that a few, a small percentage of these guys can improve but what about the majority of them for whom there is no solution?

The only thing I ask myself is whether the directors and producers of this documentary would trust these guys to care for their 5-year daughters...

As some of the other reviews will unintentionally tell you, if you don't already feel sympathetic to registered sex offenders who are shunned by society, this documentary will do little to change any of that.

Sure, flashing children on the street is not the same as molesting your own child for years on end. They don't merit the same reaction from society - that is true.

But this documentary does nothing but present a narrative with which we aren't already familiar. Sex offenders were so often victims of trauma themselves, violence breeds violence, when in Rome, etc., etc. But child abuse is wrong!, etc., etc.

To make matters worse, the offenders didn't seem to care about the victims, they only wanted to protect their own reputation - leading me to ask the wrong questions, the ones the documentary wanted me to avoid. Like, what kind of therapy they were receiving? How can they move along without true regret? What exactly have they learned? The place was only run by other sex offenders, should they even be giving each other therapy?

What I really wanted from this documentary, was a more objective look at what happens to the offender ones they have served their time in prison. I wanted the documentary to tell us how poor - on average - their chances of living a normal life afterwards would be. Maybe compare this to what happens murderers, or drug dealers, etc., to present this as the complex moral issue it truly is.

Sure, we can torment the offenders 'till the day they die, but what good will it do? Is it really that reasonable to prevent these people from becoming contributing members of society? Isn't it a waste of human life, or just plain ressources, to let them be outcasts forever and ever?

I think so. This problem won't be solved by looking away, no problem ever will, no matter how ugly it is. I wish people would talk about pedophilia more often. I wish there were ressources for people who had these wrong thoughts, I wish they were allowed to talk about them - so we could prevent them from taking actions, so we could give them the mental strength to do right.

But the documentary made a bad case for this, focused on the wrong ways to emit sympathy, and a murky way of presenting facts. It didn't provoke the kind of rational thought that would counter the terrifying feeling of knowing, that you are looking at a room full of people who have probably raped someone. Quite a shame, really. This documentary gets 6 stars, primarily because it is one of the only ones of it's kind.

When you sit down to watch a documentary such as "Pervert Park" which deals with registered sex offenders, you have to do so with a neutral state of mind. I mean, you can't really go into watching something like this and either be judgmental or sympathetic in advance. No, you have to leave your own morale stand and views at the threshold.

And I did that when I sat down to watch the 2014 documentary "Pervert Park" here in 2021. I had never even heard about it, but had the opportunity to watch it.

Writers and directors Frida Barkfors and Lasse Barkfors does sort of set up a let's-feel-sympathetic-for-these-people portrait with the way that the documentary is narrated and by the questions asked. Sure, it does offer some insight into the mentality of the people that were interviewed, and hats off to them for participating in such a documentary and baring their stories and experiences.

There definitely were some very deviant experiences and backstories here in the documentary, and I will say that I sort of feel like the documentary should do a follow-up on the people, to see what happened since the interview and where they are in their lives and living/relationship situations some time after this documentary was shot.

And I also think that the documentary is sort of biased, as it only showcases the stories from the sides of the registered offenders. It would have been nice to have had some interviews with the victims or those closely related to the victims, to have their sides of the events brought out in the light as well.

I was adequately entertained by the documentary. And when I say "entertained", I mean that I feel that the documentary provided me with enough insight and enlightenment into some of the topics here. But at the same time was rather vague in other aspects. But all in all, adequate enough for a viewing.

I am rating this 2014 documentary a five out of ten stars.