A One-Star Scandal

 It's a bit humorous to tell this story over public TV, but it's worth the effort.

So one of the sub-public networks under the German system is NDR (representing the far northwest of Germany).

NDR went out and sponsored this documentary piece to be done (taking several years from beginning to end), and the title was 'Lovemobil'. It came out in 2019, and was shown at various film fests....winning various awards.

So, we have this element in Germany....of legal prostitutes who use RV campers, and hook up with customers....in lesser traveled regions.  

Some towns have zero.  Some towns might have forty of them.  They tend to park in industrialized areas, and it's accepted by the police (unless the town makes rules against it).

The idea of the documentary...you'd go and follow these two lady hookers.  NDR had played the video on their network, and folks generally thought it was interesting.

In the past week....this problem arose.  You see....the person who did the documentary piece....just wanted to tell the authentic story, and she ended up using fake hookers (actors) for the documentary.  All these awards?  Well....those folks are extremely irked by the fakeness of this.  NDR? They are pretty upset.

The fact that some minor parts of the documentary are true?  Well, you just don't know where fact ends, and fakeness starts up.

Presently, the news folks are doing a lot of criticism and want their consumers to know that they didn't know nothing about this fakeness.  It's probably true.  

So the dozen-odd awards that the director and film won....thrown out?  Oh yeah....they all have jumped up and deleted the film awards.

The chief problem for this director now....Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss?  Just looking at how frustrated the public TV folks are, and the movie award industry...she's got a toxic problem that will last a minimum of a decade.  I don't see public TV buying into any documentary that she makes.  

This all begs the question as well....she's made four additional documentary pieces....how much was true, and how much was fake?  

Then you start to look across the whole industry that exists in Germany....a lot depending on public TV's need for 'entertainment' or 'viewing'.  How much of these productions are fake?

As scandals go....I'd kind of rate this as a '3' on a scale of one to ten.  The basic story of the hookers who use the RV campers is true, and the director just wanted to tell this story.....without involving actual real hookers.  If you ask me....most hookers or their guys....if asked to participate....would have said 'no way'.