Das wunder von Mühlenbeck

DAS WUNDER VON MÜHLENBECK. On May 1st 2004, the SV Mühlenbeck was short a player for its local football league game against Birken- werder BC 1908. Attempting to avoid having to pay a fine, they convinced the referee to falsify the match report. On paper, it was a 6-0 win for Birkenwerder, but a complaint from a fan revealed the truth.

Director Johan Kramer read about the quirky incident and wanted to film a documentary  about it.  He contacted  each of the clubs, told  them about the idea and suggested that the game should actually take place. It was played and filmed on August 22, 2004. A 3-2 win for SV Mühlenbeck. We used a documentary approach for the identity materials. Correspondence between the team captains, the referee, club owners and league officials, super- imposed on stills from the film, was used for a series of 8 postcards. Clues one can investigate before seeing the film. As a symbol for the game that wasn’t played, the deflated ball centrally appears in both film and print.