"Versicherungsvertreter - Die erstaunliche Karriere des Mehmet Göker" is a fairly long title for this not very long documentary movie from 2011, so this one is almost a decade old now already. It is perhaps the most known filmmaking effort until now by writer and director Klaus Stern, whon you also hear in this one when the man it is about talks to him near the end. You can see Göker on the photo here and this picture is kinda telling enough for sure. There was never any intention to make Göker look good. And Stern does not even have to put in a lot of effort for that because Göker is so unlikable, loud and obnoxious that he basically does it all by himself already with his mere presence every time you see him on the screen and he probably has over an hour screen time. The rest goes to Göker's colleagues and employees, some of them former employees actually and what they have to say about their former boss is not really too nice either. But it feels realistic and accurate as much as I can be a judge of that. decadence, boastfulness and just an exaggerated approch to hyperactivity were a constant accomplice for everybody in this company it seems. And of coruse, the one thing that should totally not be forgotten is the money component. It is all about money. Nothing else. It is really ridiculous how Göker says on one occasion profit is not crucial or something like that and the irony is priceless or how he says he is no longer a slave to money. I am not buying it at all. No pun intended.
I guess the only reason why I did not see this as a total failure is because in terms of the basics of documentary filmmaking, this was not a bad approach and even if the man at the center of it all does not deserve a film made about him at all, this should not be neglected. How unlikable the man is, it is still not a bad documentary. And Göker surely likes being in the spotlight here. He likes it enough for a second film made (again by Stern) four years later, but I wonder what it is about because at the end of this one here Göker is in Turkey and head of a small company after German authorities closed his business because of apparently illegal activities. I am not sure how many court decisions happened, at least Göker is not in jail. Like his idol you could say because it is pretty fitting that he wears a jersey of football club Bayern Munich on several occasions as they were presided until just a few days ago by convicted criminal Uli Hoeneß. But lets not drift away. Like I said, at the end of the adventure/movie Göker's enterprise has to shut down and we hear him comment on that too in the sense that he did not do anything illegal in person, but he cannot speak for all his employees. This is of course correct, but still it shows that he is really ready to throw anybody under the bus if it serves his purpose of making more money and getting away with dubious activities. Early on in this film, there was even a mention of alleged connections to organized crime. Oh well, I guess it fits in nicely with how we hear on one occasion how Göker's company dealt with employees who did not make enough money. They are not just let go fairly quickly, but stuff like notice periods do not exist in this world. Instead, hunky security staff members make sure they are out of the building as fast as possible.
I guess the only reason why I did not see this as a total failure is because in terms of the basics of documentary filmmaking, this was not a bad approach and even if the man at the center of it all does not deserve a film made about him at all, this should not be neglected. How unlikable the man is, it is still not a bad documentary. And Göker surely likes being in the spotlight here. He likes it enough for a second film made (again by Stern) four years later, but I wonder what it is about because at the end of this one here Göker is in Turkey and head of a small company after German authorities closed his business because of apparently illegal activities. I am not sure how many court decisions happened, at least Göker is not in jail. Like his idol you could say because it is pretty fitting that he wears a jersey of football club Bayern Munich on several occasions as they were presided until just a few days ago by convicted criminal Uli Hoeneß. But lets not drift away. Like I said, at the end of the adventure/movie Göker's enterprise has to shut down and we hear him comment on that too in the sense that he did not do anything illegal in person, but he cannot speak for all his employees. This is of course correct, but still it shows that he is really ready to throw anybody under the bus if it serves his purpose of making more money and getting away with dubious activities. Early on in this film, there was even a mention of alleged connections to organized crime. Oh well, I guess it fits in nicely with how we hear on one occasion how Göker's company dealt with employees who did not make enough money. They are not just let go fairly quickly, but stuff like notice periods do not exist in this world. Instead, hunky security staff members make sure they are out of the building as fast as possible.
