Review of Capturing the Friedmans (2003) by Erika R — 10 Jul 2010

Difficult documentary about family under accuses of terrible pedophilia. When someone is accused of molesting children hysteria often rises. After a while it's really hard to determine what is real and what is pure fiction. Children as witnesses is tricky thing since they easily give answers interrogator wants. When enough children were questioned the deeds of accused were so numerous and disturbing that it was no way plausible in any form. I'm sure different people will come to different conclusions about the events but I believe that Arnold and Jesse Friedman were not guilty of happenings they wen't to jail for. I believe Arnold Friedman was pedophile though but it's not clear if he actually ever acted on his urges.

Recently I saw swedish document which compared pedophile-hysteria with witch-hunts in dark ages. Among witch-trials all over europe it told about case of male teacher who worked at daycare in small town in Sweden. Some child presumably had said that he/she had seen teachers penis. After that other teachers (all female) started to collect "evidence" against that man. Evidence had orange peels that were "peeled in sexual manner" and child's very crude drawing of that male teacher. Teachers legs were done in dozens of quickly drawn lines and one line happened to be further from leg and it was interpreted as male organ. When police started to investigate the case and parents got hysterical things escalated from bad to weird and after a while bunch of people in the village were accused of satanic rituals where babies were eaten and goats molested. Case wen't from court to court and took several years and finally charges were dismissed in highest degree of court in Sweden.