Born to Fake

In the organizer's words:

• DE 2025
• 93 min
• Director: Erec Brehmer, Benjamin Rost
• FSK: from 12 years
• Documentary: Original version with German voiceover and subtitles where applicable

Screenings:

• Thu, May 28, 2026 - Wed, June 3, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.

"BORN TO FAKE is a truly provocative documentary that makes you think."
Jury statement, One Future Prize (Munich Film Festival)

Born to Fake is the reconstruction of a German media scandal. The film tells the story of Michael Born, whose fake television reports were broadcast unchecked in major TV formats in the 1990s. But Born to Fake does not look back to close a case. The film looks back to show how present it has become. What seemed like a spectacular isolated case at the time now appears to be an early precursor of a problem that has long since become part of our everyday lives: Images are often more convincing than their scrutiny. Visibility replaces credibility. Dramaturgy has a stronger effect than origin. And the question is not only what is fake, but why something wants to be believed at all. In this film, Michael Born is therefore not just the TV faker from back then. He becomes the key figure in a larger story: about media and seduction, about the hunger for evidence, about a system that wanted strong images and too rarely asked how they were created. In a present in which AI, deepfakes and the loss of certainty are being discussed, this case takes on a new poignancy. Born to Fake is not a nostalgic look back at a TV scandal. It is a film about the present of images.