Singer George Michael said a candid new documentary about his life that premiered in Berlin on Wednesday was a way of telling his story before he retired from the public gaze. "George Michael: A Different Story" traces a rags-to-riches journey that made Michael one of the biggest selling artists of the 1980s and 1990s but which was not without problems along the way.

"The time of hiding has been over for a while, but actually this is probably the most you're ever going to see of me," he told reporters at the Berlin Film Festival, sporting his trademark dark glasses and stubble.

Michael lays his soul bare in the 100-minute film in which he speaks about losing a lover to AIDS, of the infamous lewd act in a toilet and the media fury over his anti-Iraq war stance.

The documentary is fascinating as much for its insight into life as a celebrity as it is for revealing at least some of the truth about the notoriously publicity-shy star.

Copyright Reuters, 2005