"Soap Around The World"

1996/97 for ZDF/ ARTE Thematic Evening, DV/ Betacam SP, Length: 120 min.

"Soap Around The World" is a journey through parallel worlds of everyday life which are spanned around the globe day after day, week after week. It examines the circumstances under which tv-serials are being produced and perceived. Beyond that it poses the question of political and societal effectiveness of such "designs of reality". From Hollywood, where the promise to show the US-Serials distributed all over the world neither can nor will be kept. Via Kazahkstan, where a soap opera is trying to help market economy to get accepted, being itself a product of effective market economy. The journey finally leads to Nigeria, where a sitcom using means of satire questions the whole political and social system.

Archive: Harvey Elentuck presenting P & G

Part 1: Berlin - Los Angeles

Part 2: Los Angeles - New York - Tijuana

Archive: Coronation Street

Part 3: Alma Ata - London

Part 4: Cologne - Munich

Archive: Ken Saro Wiwa (short documentary)

Part 5: Berlin - Lagos - Port Harcourt

Soap around the World | My Life is a Soap Opera