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Scene from »Lovemobil«
Photo:
C. Rohrscheidt / E. Lehrenkrauss
The award-winning documentary »Lovemobil«, published last year and co-produced by NDR, which shows the life of sex workers in Lower Saxony, contains various scenes staged with actors.
The broadcaster disclosed this after the NDR editorial team »STRG-F« had checked the way Elke Lehrenkrauss made the film.
The documentary, which has been praised by German and international media and shown at various film festivals, is about the lives of three women in their mobile homes in which they prostitute themselves.
In addition, people have their say - such as the bus owner or a bartender - who benefit from sex work.
SPIEGEL also reported on the documentary, which made it into the preselection of the German Film Prize last year.
According to NDR, »Lovemobil« is supposed to have been created on the basis of long-term research by the producer Lehrenkrauss, but the main protagonists of the film did not describe their personal experiences but played a role.
Numerous situations, according to the NDR, are also simulated or staged.
When asked by NDR, Elke Lehrenkrauss admitted that the two main protagonists from the documentary were not real.
Neither of them worked as a sex worker on the highways of Lower Saxony.
Both protagonists were used as actresses.
According to the director Lehrenkrauss, a suitor shown in the film also played a role for the NDR.
NDR not informed about the productions
The film, which was awarded the German Documentary Film Prize in July 2020 and is currently nominated for the Grimme Prize, was editorially supported and approved by the NDR documentary film editorial team.
In a press release, the public broadcaster distanced itself from the documentation.
Lehrenkrauss did not mention during production that she was planning to reenact scenes.
The trigger for the critical examination of the film was research by »STRG-F«.
According to the NDR, the editorial team had received information from the production environment and had found discrepancies after their own research.
In an interview with »STRG-F« the director defends her approach: »In any case, I cannot blame myself for having falsified reality because this reality that I created in the film is a much more authentic reality." Lehrenkrauss told SPIEGEL that she had re-enacted "moments that we actually experienced" with amateur actresses.
The film is a “mixture” of productions based on researched facts and real observations.
According to NDR, the station is still at the beginning of investigating the incident.
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