Born To Fake

BORN TO FAKE reconstructs, using original footage, the story of TV fraudster Michael Born, whose fabricated reports aired unchecked on stern TV and other programmes throughout the 1990s. The documentary traces his rise and asks what his deceptions reveal about our appetite for spectacle and the nature of truth in the age of fake news (ttt, Das Erste).

Rather than looking back at the nineties with nostalgia, the film shows how early a certain image regime became visible - one that is returning today in new form: reality grows malleable, images become cheaper, more polished, more easily manipulated.

Germany 2025, directed by Erec Brehmer & Benjamin Rost, 93 min., FSK 12. Osnabrück premiere.