Fridae

A German cannibal, who gained global notoriety for killing and eating another man three years ago after posting an advert on the Internet asking for a willing victim, will be immortalised in a movie by a gay filmmaker.

One of Germany's most sensational trials for decades, Armin Meiwes, a middle-aged computer technician was sentenced in January to eight and a half years in jail for manslaughter.

Meiwes was spared a murder verdict as his Berlin computer specialist victim had asked to be eaten. Bernd Juergen Brandes, also in his 40s, bought a one-way ticket to the killer's home in the central German town of Rotenburg, near Kassel, and spent an evening in March 2001 with Meiwes, before volunteering to be killed. A German paper reported that the victim had sold all his possessions including a car before disappearing.

Rosa von Praunheim, among Germany's most controversial gay directors, has received 20,000 euros (US$25,000) in public funding from a regional film foundation in North Rhine-Westphalia to make the film, the BBC reports.

The 42-year-old admitted killing and eating Brandes after sex and hours of sado-masochism and had also videotaped the sexually fetishistic procedure, demonstrating how the victim even tried to eat one of his own severed body parts before eventually being killed. Afterwhich, Meiwes froze parts of Brandes and ate the remaining flesh over several months.

A Police statement says the events stem from cannibalistic and homosexual tendencies shared by the alleged murderer and his victim.

According to a BBC report, the five judges on the panel cleared the public from the court before they viewed three 90-minute videotapes of Brandes' death and dismemberment. The pair had earlier partly eaten Brandes' penis, which Meiwes cut off with Brandes' consent, said a police officer who had seen the tapes.

Police also found he had been in Internet contact with more than 200 people who shared his fantasies.

Von Praunheim who is known for his provocative films mixing homosexuality, politics and social comment, said that he has been interested in the subject of cannibalism for 20 years and his CV includes one previous film on the subject - a comedy with the improbable title: "Can I be your Bratwurst, please?"

The move to fund the film, whose working title is Your Heart In My Brain, has attracted outrage and condemnation from some conservative politicians.

"Even the title of the project could scarcely be more tasteless," said Axel Wintermeyer, legal affairs spokesperson for the conservative Christian Democrats in the state of Hesse.

"This is creating a monument to a perverted criminal," said Wintermeyer, adding he was appalled that it was being part-funded by taxpayers' money.