D For me, the 7.99 euros a month for my RTL Plus subscription was always money well invested. Because: There’s nothing I’d rather watch than reality television. And there’s no show I’m looking forward to more than Jungle Camp, the biggest entertainment show on German television. 17 days of escapism in a row.
But this year was different. RTL sent musician Gil Ofarim on a hero’s journey that ultimately ended in his coronation as king of the jungle. I didn’t understand why. Finally, Ofarim was out after he retired last year falsely as a victim of anti-Semitic statements of the Leipzig hotel employee Markus W. was not exactly popular.
And even in the jungle he didn’t do much to change that: Not only did Ofarim tell an untruth in front of an audience of millions, he portrayed himself as a passive victim of his own actions for 17 days. Actually the perfect fodder for a show like Jungle Camp. But no matter what Ofarim said, production remained silent.
Ofarim told Simone Ballack around the campfire that he was acquitted in court. The fact that the proceedings were actually stopped and only because of his admission of guilt remained unmentioned for days. At the reunion last Monday it was said that we didn’t want to get lost in the legal profession.
Ofarim declined to comment
Otherwise, Ofarim did not want to comment on his case in the camp. The reason is the confidentiality agreement that he is said to have signed. But after just a few days, the hotel employee’s lawyer Markus W. clarified: Ofarim was not obliged to maintain confidentiality. He is simply no longer allowed to make the demonstrably false claim that he was not allowed into the hotel because of his Star of David necklace. RTL did not confront Ofarim with this contradiction. Even when he continued to stick to his statement when we saw him again.
And then there was the image that Ofarim was able to create of himself. This from the suffering guy – the moderator called him “submissive” – who maybe isn’t as guilty as everyone thinks. He would also have a bad image of himself if he only knew what the public knows. He had to take the blame, otherwise he would have lost his children. Ofarim repeatedly played with the space between the lines, which could suggest: Things weren’t as you think back then. Nobody told the jungle camp audience that his case was handled very well both legally and journalistically.
There is no time for this classification, explained moderator Angela Finger-Erben in “The Hour After,” the debriefing format of the episode. After all, the jungle is an entertainment show. An absurd argument. I’ve spent about 51 hours over the last two and a half weeks watching the show and its debrief. More than enough time, in my opinion.
The fact that Ofarim repeatedly distorted the facts in a suggestive way during his time in the jungle and took no responsibility for his actions is one thing. The way production handled it was much more serious. Because it stylized him as a broken man with its partisan moderation and lack of classification.
Case appears to be reopened
If you take a look at the comment columns The jungle camp social media channels are full of Ofarim fans who praise him for his behavior in the camp. They think it’s enough now. And there are those who question his guilt in the Google reviews of the Westin Hotel in Leipzig. The Ofarim case suddenly seems to be reopened again. It is unclear whether and if so, what will happen to Markus W. in the coming weeks.
What I find frightening is how reproducible this situation is. People love a good hero’s journey. Never before have there been so many calls to vote on who should win the jungle camp, it was announced in the finale. Gil Ofarim’s hero’s journey was ultimately rewarded with his victory. I wasn’t aware beforehand that RTL granted this without any regrets.
Until the end I hoped that the framing around Ofarim was just good acting. That the show announces shortly before the end how they got the audience on their side in order to hold a mirror up to society. With his coronation as king of the jungle I switched off. And canceled my RTL Plus subscription.