A thousand lines” by Michael Bully Herbig (54) will start in cinemas on Thursday (September 29th). The media satire is worth seeing, which tells of the true incidents surrounding the journalists Claas Relotius (36) and Juan Moreno (49) – he wrote the Book template “A thousand lines of lies” (2019) – was inspired, not only for media people.
When a large media company falls for an impostor, like the “Spiegel” did back then, that affects serious journalism itself. Because in times when many only write about their own truth or get information in one-dimensional Internet bubbles, the classification by journalists who really feel committed to the truth is all the more important. “If a bomb like that bursts in a big, reputable news magazine, it plays into the hands of the wrong people,” warns Bully in an interview with spot on news.
But with all due seriousness, it wouldn’t be a real bully film if the moral club were swung. And that is actually missing. On the contrary, in “A Thousand Lines” the freelance journalist Juan Romero (Elyas M’Barek, 40) and the award-winning reporter Lars Bogenius (Jonas Nay, 32) repeatedly break through the fourth wall and explain their view of things to the cinema audience.
“That was the first idea I had when I heard about the incident and wanted to use the material to make my next film after ‘Ballon’ (2018),” enthuses Bully. “I immediately had the style of the film in mind: two journalists vying for the attention of the audience,” he continues. There is a simple reason why this was so important to him: “I wanted the viewer to feel the same way as the impostor’s environment.”
Bully’s suggestion works and that’s not only due to the good idea and the pointed mono and dialogues, but also to the top cast. Above all, Jonas Nay once again pulls out all the stops and plays the increasingly shady Bogenius, who is introduced as “dear Lars”, in a fascinatingly complex way. Elyas M’Barek’s role is naturally more sympathetic and yet you root for him when nobody believes him and he then embarks on an exciting revelation tour.
Michael Ostrowski (49, Eberhofer crime stories), Jörg Hartmann (53, Dortmund-“Tatot”) and Michael Maertens (58, “Girl You Know It’s True”) are also doing their job well – the same applies to Kurt Krömer (47, “Chez Krömer”) in his little Berlin-typical guest role.
The film, which shines with clever cuts and accelerating techniques such as split screen, becomes a road movie in some scenes with such attractive destinations as Arizona, Mexico, Cuba, Spain etc. The fact that everything was shot in Spain does not detract from the visuals. “In the corner of Almeria, Andalusia, I could imagine most things well. I was curious about Cuba, but we actually found that in Spain,” Bully recalls the location scouting and at the same time refers to the cause of the corona pandemic difficult shooting conditions.
Appropriately, it should also be mentioned here that fans of the Bully classic “Der Schuh des Manitou” (2001) can find “a little Easter Egg in ‘A Thousand Lines'”.
