„We will never mention your name”

Daniel Sager’s doc­u­men­tary „Hin­ter den Schlagzeilen – Behind the Head­lines” shows a look behind the scenes of the „Inves­tiga­tive Research” sec­tion of the Süd­deutsche Zeitung, which has already done valu­able jour­nal­is­tic work for the „Pana­ma Papers”. We accom­pa­ny Fred­erik Ober­maier and Bas­t­ian Ober­may­er in their research in the arms busi­ness and in pol­i­tics, we get access with them to the edi­tor-in-chief of the Süd­deutsche Zeitung, where inves­tiga­tive reports are dis­cussed.

„Hin­ter den Schlagzeilen – Behind the Head­lines” is a doc­u­men­tary that works like a thriller. It begins with a con­ver­sa­tion with Edward Snow­den, arranges the uncov­er­ing of the FPÖ Ibiza scan­dal sur­round­ing the then Aus­tri­an Vice Chan­cel­lor Heinz-Chris­t­ian Stra­che, and dis­cuss­es the mur­der of the Mal­tese inves­tiga­tive blog­ger Daphne Caru­a­na Gal­izia. Rarely does a doc­u­men­tary get you so deeply involved as “Behind the Head­lines”. The sto­ry­lines con­tin­ue to devel­op like in a clas­sic Hol­ly­wood thriller, the indi­vid­ual sto­ry­lines become more and more close­ly inter­wo­ven. The film stays near to the „main cast”, the two inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ists of the Süd­deutsche Zeitung.

Some­times one feels remind­ed of films of the „inves­tiga­tive” genre, for exam­ple Alan J. Paku­la’s „All the Preisdent’s Men” with Dustin Hof­mann and Robert Red­ford about the expo­sure of the Water­gate scan­dal, or more recent­ly Steven Spiel­berg’s „The Post” with Meryl Streep and Tom Han­ks on the pub­li­ca­tion of the „Pen­ta­gon Papers” in 1971.

Daniel Sager, who has already shot reports and doc­u­men­taries in Iran, Israel, Kenya, Cameroon, Mau­ri­ta­nia, Mex­i­co, Rus­sia, Ger­many and many oth­er coun­tries, made an impres­sive, con­vinc­ing and com­mit­ted, inter­na­tion­al­ly effec­tive plea for coura­geous, inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism, in times of fake news, pop­ulism and anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic cur­rents.

The depress­ing thing about this film is the back­ground of the mur­der of the Mal­tese blog­ger – and the dan­ger that the inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ists accom­pa­ny­ing the film run into when they go pub­lic with their impor­tant work. This is all the more depress­ing when you see the attacks by Don­ald Trump and oth­er pop­ulist politi­cians on jour­nal­ists – and when you become aware of the aggres­sions towards jour­nal­ists in Ger­many by peo­ple who were incit­ed by pre­cise­ly those attacks.

DANIEL SAGER, fil­mog­ra­phy (selec­tion)

“Behind the Head­lines – Behind the Head­lines” was the open­ing film of the Munich Doc­u­men­tary Film Fes­ti­val and can be seen online there until May 23, 2021. As things cur­rent­ly stand, the cin­e­ma release in Ger­many is planned for June 10, 2021.

https://www.dokfest-muenchen.de/films/view/25466

Direc­tor: Daniel Sager
Script: Daniel Sager and Marc Baud­er
Cam­era: Bör­res Weif­f­en­bach, Daniel Sager, Anne Mis­sel­witz, Frank Marten Pfeif­fer
Sound engi­neer: Frank Schu­bert, Clau­dia Led­er, Tim Kehle, Alexan­der Rubin
Edi­tor: Hannes Bru­un
Pro­duc­er: Marc Baud­er