Born to Fake

Deutschland 2023-2025 Dokumentarfilm

Summary

In 1996, one of the biggest media scandals in Germany to date shook the public: Michael Born, a self-made journalist, had faked over 20 reports for the newly emerged private television between 1990 and 1996. Some were amateurish, others featured absurd topics: child labour for Ikea in India, drug addicts licking toads to get high, and the Ku Klux Klan in the Eifel are just a few of the many fabrications. How could it come to this? Was Michael Born a whistleblower who subversively exposed the tabloid system or was he simply a fraudster?

A media-theoretical film challenging our perceptions of truth in an era of fake news and media manipulation and posing the question of why we believe what we see.

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH
 

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Credits

All Credits

Shoot

    • 01.05.2023 - 01.06.2024: Nordrhein-Westfalen, Steiermark
Duration:
97 min
Format:
DCP 2k
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Dolby SR
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 23.03.2026, 279339, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 27.06.2025, München, Filmfest - Neues Deutsches Kino;
Kinostart (DE): 28.05.2026

Titles

  • Originaltitel (DE) Born to Fake
  • Arbeitstitel (DE) Der Rattenfänger

Versions

Original

Duration:
97 min
Format:
DCP 2k
Video/Audio:
Farbe, Dolby SR
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 23.03.2026, 279339, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 27.06.2025, München, Filmfest - Neues Deutsches Kino;
Kinostart (DE): 28.05.2026

Awards

Biberacher Filmfestspiele 2025
  • Dokumentarfilm