In February 1970, director Luchino Visconti comes to Stockholm.
For five years he has been looking for the absolute beauty that will play the lead role in his new film.
In Björn Andrésen, the director finds his Tadzio.
After the premiere, he is called the most beautiful boy in the world and a world fame as a sex object begins.
In the documentary The World's Most Beautiful Boy, which premieres on October 15, Björn Andrésen's life is depicted.
- Björn used to talk about Death in Venice as the film ruined his life, says director Kristian Petri.
Became depressed
After the premiere in 1971, Björn Andrésen became a world celebrity overnight and had to travel the world and make appearances in Japan, among other places, all the time as the world's most beautiful boy.
He describes how he dived into depression and alcohol as a result of this, but that he now has a distance to it all.
- Something that is good is that it has aroused a debate about how children are abused in the film world, which is often grotesquely brutal.
You use them and cuddle with them, then just throw them out to the wolves, says Björn Andrésen.
Kristian Petri says that the documentary was made to give Björn Andrésen a voice.
- The film is something that has deprived him, his face has been covered by the character Tadzio so Björn has not been allowed to be visible.
That was one of the reasons we made this film, to give Björn's voice back, to tell his story.
Sexualized as a child
Directors Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri have worked with Andrésen for five years and want to portray the objectification and sexualization of child actors.
- He was a boy who was sexualized in a way that girls and women often become and which he himself says he can understand and share that experience.
That story is important to tell, says Kristina Lindström.