In a new book titled ”G som i gärningsman” (P as in perpetrator) the now 75-year-old Swedish director and writer Staffan Hildebrand admits to having sexually abused two younger boys in the 70ies and forging documents to make a young Thai boy appear older so he could come back to Sweden with him.
Staffan Hildebrand is best known for The King of Kungsan (1987), G (1983) and Only We Can Love Like This (1988) and according to Swedish Expressen, the new book written by Sören «Sulo» Karlsson and Deanne Rauscher, reveals Hildebrand’s darkest side.
In the book, several people share how the director in the ’70s dealt with young boys in his home while Hildebrand himself admits to having sexually assaulted young boys. Hildebrand reportedly attracted the boys by promising them film roles or exciting assignments in various film projects. He also invited them to restaurants and let them party with him.
Two of the boys, who at the time lived with Hildebrand, say in the book that through persuasion or promises of a better life, he made the boys have sex with him. At the time, the boys were 13 and 15 years old, something Hildebrand herself confirms to Expressen. The sexual abuse is said to have lasted for several years, until after the youngest boy had turned 16.
The book also reveals how Staffan Hildebrand in the ’70s made a film about a young Thai boy in Bangkok and later brought the boy back to Sweden with him. Hildebrand is said to have told friends that he had adopted the boy, who was also allowed to start in a Swedish school, but after a few months, Hildebrand took the boy back to Thailand where he left him with the boy’s mother.
The boy was around 13 or 14 years old when he came to Sweden, but according to the book, Hildebrand paid a fixer who forged documents so that the boy appeared older than he was. The forged documents are also said to have contained information that the boy’s father was dead, to make it easier for Hildebrand to take the boy to Sweden, even though the father was actually alive.
It was when the two writers Sulo Karlsson and Deanne Rauscher confronted Hildebrand with evidence of the forged documents that he instead admitted to the sexual abuse of the then 13-year-old Swedish boy.
To Expressen, Sulo Karlsson says that both himself and Deanne Rauscher were very surprised when Hildebrand suddenly began to admit the abuse. “He probably thought that he had to admit certain things because he would not be able to get away with it. We were poking a lot into what had actually happened to this Thai boy. Then suddenly he jumped and changed the subject and said that “I can at least say that I had a relationship with …”. And he said this person’s name,” Sulo Karlsson says.
In the book, Hildebrand admitted that he had a sexual relationship with one of the boys for a few years, but that he ended it when the boy said that he no longer wanted to have sex with the director. Sulo Karlsson and Deanne Rauscher continued to confront Staffan Hildebrand about the relationship with the then 15-year-old boy who is also described in the book, and in the end, the director also admitted that he had sexually exploited him.
In the book, Hildebrand said that at the time of the abuse, he did not feel that he was doing anything wrong. “Not then, but now with that knowledge, with #Metoo and all this… Of course, it is wrong. He was not mature, so to speak, to understand his sexuality at that age. But he was very mature and developed and an interesting person,” Hildebrand said in the book.
The person Hildebrand was referring to said in the book that he was just a child and that Hildebrand ruined his life.
If the abuse had taken place today, Hildenbrand could have been sentenced to prison. In the book, Hildebrand said that he hopes that the book will become a book of reconciliation. “I want to ask for forgiveness and I have made a mistake and move on in life,” he said.
