Truth and lies haven’t been this much fun since Trump – whose dedicated service to fake news is acknowledged here – drained it of humour. While a story about uncovering the biggest fraud scandal in German journalism could have been an earnest, investigative affair, this is far from it.

At the outset, the fictional magazine Die Chronik – it was Der Spiegel in real life – has dispatched an experienced Spanish journalist from Berlin, Juan Romero (Elyas M’Barek), to Mexico to write about refugees hoping to cross the US border.

On the American side is their star feature writer, Lars Bogenius (Jonas Nay), who has to do the same with those who don’t want the refugees to come. In just three days he infiltrates the notorious Wolf Bandit vigilantes who he calls by their nicknames – Nail, Ghost, etc – and who brazenly shoot at Latinos in front of him because they trust him that much.

The film is so much more than the story of how Bogenius’s frauds came to light, although the final reckoning is worth the wait. You mean the boy whose graffiti started the war in Syria wasn’t real? It slipped by the fact checkers because the boy had since disappeared, another tragic victim of war, according to the journalist. The frauds here are fictional but the real ones written by journalist Claas Relotius and published by Der Spiegel weren’t much different.

The film’s style, with its Tarantino flourishes, is particularly engaging as it follows the charismatic Romero, who keeps being mistaken for a cab driver, on the trail of the truth. His personal life – father of four delightful children and married to a woman he loves – is part of the film’s warmth and generosity, even when he neglects them as obsession takes hold.

A Thousand Lines is wonderfully satirical – not funny as such, but with biting portrayals of a newsroom where journalists are driven to be the best. Romero’s senior editors at first defend their turf and are furious with him for making trouble; obviously he is jealous. An email to them listing all the inconsistencies in the US border story is all a bit of a nuisance.

There is a lot of insight into the culture that made Bogenius who he was. Feature writers are instructed not to be boring and to seek out a story that has a dramatic arc and offers emotion, conflict and, finally, resolution. Even when Bogenius is caught, the meaning of truth becomes a slippery thing. The facts may not have been right but the story was justified because it had emotional truth… or so he argues.

This pitch-perfect opening-night selection in the German Film Festival is based on the book by the journalist who uncovered the frauds of Claas Relotius in 2018. It is a good story anyway, but the confident direction by Michael Herbig gives it real flourish. A straightforward piece of dogged journalism that uncovered the truth becomes a morality tale filled with emotion, wit, conflict and resolution, told on the big screen.

The German Film Festival runs from May 3-24 at Palace Nova Eastend and Palace Nova Prospect. Read more about the films in this year’s program here.