Thousand Lines: Media satire by Michael Herbig about a German press scandal that convicts a star reporter of lying.
Film plot and background
Media satire by Michael Herbig about a German press scandal that convicts a star reporter of lying.
Star reporter Lars Bogenius (Jonas Nay) could win prizes with his numerous works and is one of the most renowned journalists from Germany. But his colleague Juan Romero (Elyas M’Barek) discovers some inconsistencies in his work. Slowly he gets wise to him, uncovers systematic lies and triggers one of Germany’s biggest press scandals with his revelations.
The trailer also plays with the audience’s expectations:
“1000 lines” – cast, background, cinema release
The top stars Elyas M’Barek (“Nightlife”) and Jonas Nay (“Deutschland 83”) slip into the leading roles in the media satire “1000 Zeilen”. Director Michael Herbig (“Ballon”) stays true to his new line and stages a film based on true events with “1000 Zeilen”.
It is about the Spiegel affair, which was uncovered by its own paper in December 2018. The star reporter Claas Relotius, changed to Lars Bogenius in the film, delivered reports from Germany and abroad that were partly or entirely fabricated. He pretended to have interviewed people he never met and changed passages to better capture the zeitgeist. His interviews not only withstood internal scrutiny, but were showered with numerous awards.
It was only when Relotius collaborated with Juan Moreno, changed to Juan Romero in the film, for a reportage that the latter discovered the systematic falsification and exposed the scandal in his own paper despite all internal resistance. After making his accusations, he was told by the paper that there would be consequences either for him or for Relotius. Relotius was eventually fired and made the following statement about the accusations: “I am sick, and I have to get help now. “
Moreno put his view on paper in the 2019 book “A Thousand Lines of Lies – The Relotius System and German Journalism”, contextualising the fabric of German journalism.
The film adaptation “1000 Zeilen” is based on the book of the same name and will be partly realised in Munich by Michael Herbig, with Hermann Florin (“Der Junge muss an die frische Luft”) contributing the screenplay. The film will be released on 29 September 2022.
