Das Wunder von Mühlenbeck

In May 2004, two amateur soccer teams from former East Berlin faced each other on the pitch. Home team Mühlenbeck SV only had six players available and to dodge a fine, they agreed with their opponent Birkenwerder on a 0-6 final score. Nobody would have heard anything about it, if an anonymous caller had not informed the incorruptible competition manager. Miraculously, the ensuing scandal made the columns of respectable newspapers in France and Spain. Johan Kramer made a graceful and witty reconstruction of the events: players of both teams, the conscientious competition manager, mayors and chairmen file past, each in his own way contributing to the absurdity of the incident and its consequences. Particularly the competition manager seems to have walked right out of a Monty Python scene, when explaining his straightforward attitude: 'We're not a banana republic.'