The Circumciser

What Is the Series About?

*The Circumciser* is a 2018 Danish true-crime documentary film directed by Michael Klint and produced by Danmarks Radio. It covers the case of Peter Frederiksen, a man whose arrest in South Africa exposed a pattern of depraved sex crimes that, according to Apple TV's synopsis, "shocked the world." The film runs 58 minutes and is available to purchase or rent on the Apple TV Store. It is listed as a single documentary feature, not a multi-episode series.

The title refers to the nature of Frederiksen's crimes, which involved the mutilation of female genitalia — a detail that emerged only after investigators searched his home and made a discovery that set the entire case in motion.

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The Case

The Peter Frederiksen case is one of the most disturbing criminal cases to emerge from the Danish true-crime landscape in recent years. According to the Apple TV synopsis, police searching Frederiksen's home in South Africa found pieces of frozen female genitalia, which immediately triggered a wide-ranging investigation. The charges that followed encompassed assault, paedophilia, genital mutilation, and murder — a combination that placed the case in an extremely rare category of criminal severity.

Rotten Tomatoes identifies the film as covering "the case of Peter Frederiksen," who was arrested in South Africa for pedophilia and murder. The victims in the case are confirmed by the available sources to have been female, but the verified research materials do not identify any victim by name or age. This article therefore does not speculate on victim identities.

Frederiksen's crimes took place in South Africa, though the exact dates of the offenses, his arrest, trial, and conviction are not confirmed in the available verified sources. What is confirmed is that he was ultimately convicted — and that this conviction was directly assisted by material gathered by journalists who filmed him.

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The Role of Journalism in the Conviction

One of the most remarkable aspects of The Circumciser is its documentary's direct contribution to law enforcement. According to the Apple TV Store listing, two Danish journalists actively assisted South African police during the investigation. Interview footage captured by these journalists and included in the documentary was subsequently used as evidence against Frederiksen in court.

Apple's synopsis states explicitly that the conviction "wouldn't have been possible without the interview footage shown in this documentary" — an unusually direct claim that positions The Circumciser not merely as an observer of events but as a participant in the justice process. This raises significant and fascinating questions about the evolving role of documentary journalism in criminal investigations: when does a camera become a tool of law enforcement, and what ethical obligations does that create for the filmmakers involved?

The two Danish journalists have not been named in the verified available sources, and this article does not speculate on their identities.

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Production

The film was directed by Michael Klint and produced by Danmarks Radio, Denmark's national public broadcaster — the same institution behind numerous acclaimed Danish investigative journalism projects. The production is 58 minutes in length, placing it firmly in the single-feature documentary format rather than the serialized true-crime format that has become dominant on streaming platforms since the mid-2010s.

The documentary appears to have had access to interview footage of Frederiksen himself — footage that proved significant enough to be admitted as court evidence. This level of access suggests the journalists involved spent considerable time with Frederiksen prior to his arrest or during the investigation, though the precise timeline of filming relative to the criminal proceedings has not been confirmed by the verified sources available.

The film was released in 2018 and is distributed internationally through the Apple TV Store, making it accessible to audiences outside Denmark.

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Reception

Rotten Tomatoes hosts a title page for *The Circumciser*, crediting Michael Klint as director and Danmarks Radio as production company. However, the available verified sources do not include a Tomatometer score, audience score, or substantive critical reviews of the film. An IMDb page and rating for The Circumciser could not be confirmed from the available research.

Given the extreme nature of the crimes depicted — genital mutilation, pedophilia, and murder — the documentary almost certainly carries content warnings, and it is reasonable to expect that audience and critical response has reflected both the importance of the subject matter and the discomfort inherent in its graphic details. However, this article does not speculate beyond what the verified sources confirm.

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The Case Today

Peter Frederiksen was convicted, with documentary interview footage playing a role in securing that outcome. However, the verified sources available at the time of publication do not confirm the length of his sentence, the court that tried him, the verdict date, or his current custodial status. This article will be updated as further verified information becomes available.

The case remains a landmark example of the intersection between investigative documentary journalism and criminal prosecution — a case in which a camera crew's access to a perpetrator ultimately contributed to his conviction for some of the most serious crimes in the spectrum of violent offending.

The Circumciser is available on the Apple TV Store.