Drug baron at 19 tells his story on Netflix4 reading minutes

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

More than 900 kilos of all kinds of drugs: that's how much German Maximilian Schmidt sold in fourteen months, for a total of 4.1 million euros, before being arrested by the police. It all happened in his teenage bedroom. He, the police and a few other interlocutors testify on his abracadabra story in a Netflix documentary released on August 3.

Creating a drug empire from his PC at the age of 19. It takes self-confidence, digital skills and moral emptiness to pull off a stunt like that. That's what the documentary Shiny_Flakes: the Little Baron of the Darknet co-directed by Eva Müller and Michael Schmitt. What makes it interesting? The young criminal himself speaks on camera. Alternating with interviews with his lawyer, his psychologist and a police officer.

Nonchalant and amoral

All it takes is a little time and independence, a room never visited by parents, an entry into the darknet, a learning curve, megalomania and you're there. Or almost. To set up your own online platform for selling drugs - cocaine, crack, ecstasy, LSD, hashish - and manage it all on your own, you have to say to yourself at some point: «I'm going for it, I'm going illegal». This is what the feature-length biography shows, following the thoughts - basic and empty - of a pimply-faced kid who takes steps to get ahead.

But the documentary is quite irritating. Because Max himself is annoying. His little phrases like «I never thought I'd hurt anyone» and his cynical, geeky grin are all the more infuriating because he brings them to the screen so naturally. Most pathetic of all is the sympathetic way in which the young thug emerges from the film, despite its relatively sober aesthetic and the judicial finale it reserves for patient viewers. The film has a strong netflix-cool-attitude-adofriendly dimension, which is insufferable.

However, to watch this feature-length film is to give oneself the chance to guess at the psychological background to such an affair, combining shyness, screens, loneliness, lack of ideals, lack of culture and perhaps a need for recognition. Since we know very little about the young German's family background, we wonder whether a fictionalized account might have had more effect. However, this was already done in 2019 with How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), a German web series inspired by this case.

In the end, this Netflix content appears as a publicity stunt for another Netflix content, pulling a thread that's a hit (don't forget that the narcotics theme is the basis of one of the streaming platform's biggest successes, the series Narcos). At least, the few emotions felt in the face of the documentary merge with what seems to be Max's spirit. Like a warning.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credits: © Netflix