Born to Fake

Born to Fake is a documentary about a major German media scandal that came to light in 1996. Between 1990 and 1996, an untrained journalist named Michael Born created more than twenty fraudulent reports for a new private television station. These fabrications ranged from the absurd to the amateurish, including false stories about the Ku Klux Klan in the Eifel region, child labor for IKEA in India, and drug users licking toads. Using hundreds of hours of raw footage and interviews with former associates, the film examines whether Born was a fraud, a victim of the industry, or a subversive critic of tabloid media. It explores the nature of fake news and why audiences believe visual media.

The film was directed by Erec Brehmer and Benjamin Rost. Within Brehmer's career, this follows his 2016 work, Voicemail. The production was handled by SWR and MSZ Production and Consulting, with Mark Szilágyi serving as producer. The cast features Michael Born and several other individuals appearing as themselves, including Roland Berger, Martin Lettmayer, Dr. Gabriele Schuster, and Thomas Pritzl. The documentary was released on May 28, 2026, with a total runtime of 92 minutes.