Netflix has released an intriguing new documentary revealing all the improbable twists in the rise and fall of Wirecard, the German online payments giant. If you think that sounds like a relatively trivial matter, take a minute to consider: how safe is it to enter credit card details into your online banking portal?
Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard Review Doesn’t Contain Any Spoilers –
Skandal Bringing Down Wirecard Recounts True and Bizarre Events
The more than two-year controversy over the dodgy dealings of payment processor Wirecard has been a strange case rivalling the best-ever conspiracy thrillers. Netflix has achieved what most thought impossible: bringing down German online payments giant Wirecard.
For anyone even mildly intrigued by the behind-the-scenes story of one of the biggest flameouts in financial history, scores of jailed executives and an IPO never happened – Skandal is an absolute must-watch documentary. It explores the lengths a man will go to get ahead in life and the connections he’ll need to succeed.
Along the way, we get an insight into how the German system of bureaucracy gave McCrum an unreasonable advantage in his fight against Wirecard: the German judiciary routinely issued warrants to seize a company’s assets if it was suspected of criminal activity but refused to act on information about known wrongdoing.
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Why is the Documentary- Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard a Must-watch?
Countless documentaries have explored the dark side of the business. Skandal: Bringing Down Wirecard does not disappoint in this regard. The film skilfully and deftly recounts how a German payments giant lost its way and how global media reported on it as events unfolded.
Have you ever wondered how companies can get away with crimes in the digital age? Do you think it’s a crime to be private but not secret — as the Wirecard case shows us — or to use competitors’ secrets and then trample over all the rules of fair competition? Netflix’s Skandal: Bringing Down Wirecard works as a primer, but it also shows how much more there is to tell.
And yet the experience of watching Skandal: Bringing Down Wirecard is far more compelling than its contents. The documentary recounts a tangle of events that even non-Europeans are likely to recognise.
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Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard Illustrates Crime in Its True Form and Motive
Objectively we can say that the film does all of this very well. It is nowhere near as dull as the company’s annual reports. It can make a lot out of a little and picks subjects to sympathise with that it knows the audience will want to hear about.
In an era when film and television adaptations of non-fiction scandals generally centre on egomaniacal billionaires or politicians, it’s nice to see Netflix doing the legwork to bring us true-crime reporting on one of the world’s greatest financial scandals.
The beginning part is a bit slow, and the whole Wirecard film review scandal turned into an international incident requiring the intervention of the German military intelligence service. Still, it’s worth watching because of its sharp satirical insight into the worst aspects of humanity.
The Wirecard Saga combines investigative journalism with a novel-like narrative in bringing to light German corporate misconduct in the wake of the financial crisis. How, exactly, do you tell the stories of criminal enterprise and financial failure without revelling in those stories?
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Stream It or Skip It?
Forget John Grisham. If you want to know where the real scandals are, you’ve got to watch Netflix’s latest documentary on Wirecard. Not just because of all the unlucky employees who lost their life savings and pensions after being lured into thinking they’d never have to work again but also because of how supremely incompetent the company was.
Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard is streaming on Netflix.