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The Talented Mr. F.

Screening at the German Film Festival, this is a mind-boggling tale of a 'you-tuber' dickhead who nicked a short animation film off a couple of German university students and passed it off as his own work. The thief, or the 'talented' Mr. F. of the title, is Samuel Felinton, a ubiquitous pud with a probable case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This diagnosis has been mentioned on Reddit but his baggage is weighty so fucks knows what's wrong with him.

We open with Moritz and Julius, who made a cute little robot anime, uploaded it to YouTube to see if anyone liked it, and when it gained loads of hits and positive comments, took it down. Emboldened by this public favour, they then started to enter their short, Butty, into various film festivals. When the replies came back that it couldn't be accepted because the film was already doing the festival circuit, the lads freaked out.

Turns out Butty's brief online life was enough time for Felinton to download it, cut a scene or two, add some music, change the credits, and rename the film T-130. This new iteration was picked up by several festivals, winning some awards along the way, and making something of a minor celebrity of Felinton. There are quite a few found footage clips of the goon on local US TV shows, spruiking 'his' film and generally giving himself a good old flannelling.

When the lads discover the legal angle to be prohibitive, they chew over the idea of confronting Felinton themselves. And why not make a doco about this whole farrago of bullshit? Plans are set in motion and soon they're on a plane to the U.S.

The main draw of this film is not, as you might imagine, that there's a satisfying revenge outcome. It shows rather a uniquely sensible approach to something as ridiculous as this imperfect crime. The scene where Julius and Moritz finally confront Samuel is awkward, almost nauseating and ultimately, very mature. I'm not sure I could have handled the situation with as much sobriety as these guys did.

The film puts the viewer in the position of making judgements, whether it's the initial realisation that someone had the bare-faced cheek to try this, or the moment when director Igor Plischke interviews Felinton by himself, and we witness another side to him. But it's up to you to make up your own mind about him. I know I have.

The Talented Mr. F. is showing at the German Film Festival from May 6 - 27 around Australia (at Palace and Luna cinemas in Perth).

See also:

Another great doco on the topic of faking it is Bart Layton's The Imposter (2012). A couple of interesting thematic links come from Emerald Fennell's Saltburn (2023) and Giuseppe Capotondi's The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019).

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