Somewhere on the outskirts of a settlement in Romania, a car is parked. A man sits at the wheel. His gaze is directed towards an anonymous block of flats, a building that obviously dates back to the communist era. The sky is grey, the snow will soon be dirty, but there is still a semblance of purity over the landscape.

The man observes a couple of boys frolicking in the snow. Finally, he gives himself a jolt, gets out of the car, forms a large snowball and throws himself into battle. He is a stranger here, and he knows very well that he embodies the opposite of what the boys radiate to him: impartiality, joy of playing, childlike energy.

For a few moments, they simply pick him up in their movement, let him engage them in brawls, don't ask why an adult joins them. After all, it is the man himself who withdraws, and as soon as he is a few meters away, he can no longer suppress the tears. Because he knows that he has just crossed a dangerous line.

The man's name is Ewald Scholz, he is from Austria, in Romania he works as an engineer in a power plant. Ewald is a pedophile. The snowball fight was a sexual experience for him. He broke out of his loneliness for a moment, rolled around in the snow with the boys, went just enough so far that they didn't become suspicious yet. Now he's back in the car. But a plan is maturing in his head.

What was the accusation?

Ewald Scholz is the main character in the Austrian feature film "Sparta" by Ulrich Seidl. Last fall, shortly before the planned world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Der Spiegel published a major story that made serious accusations against the director. He would have exploited and manipulated the child actors during the filming in Romania, would have elicited their consent from the parents, without explaining to them exactly what "Sparta" is about.

Toronto cancelled the premiere, in San Sebastian "Sparta" ran shortly afterwards, and now there is a theatrical release, for which the distributor is hardly committed. As with many similar matters – most recently again with the allegations against Til Schweiger – an ambiguity arises after the publication of an investigative story, which results from the fact that often nothing is legally sufficiently tangible, but that there is too much in the room for rehabilitation.

Ulrich Seidl was acquitted by the Austrian Film Institute to the extent that there were no sufficient reasons for reclaiming the funding. In concrete terms, however, his situation will probably only be clarified when he submits new projects. For three decades he was one of the most successful, but also most controversial Austrian filmmakers. It remains to be seen how the juries, artistic directors and committees react to further projects.

Together with "Rimini", which was screened at the Berlinale two years ago, "Sparta" forms a diptych built around a common father figure: Ekkehart (Hans-Michael Rehberg in his last role) dawns in an old people's home. In dementia, he only receives strong signals, most of which have to do with the Second World War, such as the song "I had a comrade" or "Today Germany belongs to us and tomorrow the whole world". In "Rimini", Seidl had told the story of Ekkehart's one son, who is looking for a livelihood as a pop singer and gigolo in the Italian seaside resort during the winter season.