The Frankfurt crime scene “Luna eats or dies” on ARD does not have an easy time with a story from the literary scene. The TV review.
“Luna eats or dies” from Hessischer Rundfunk seems to be the belated “crime scene” for the Frankfurt Book Fair, an ARD story from the heart of the literary scene. From those spheres where ambition, vigor and uncertainty billow, the hope for the next giant talent and the desire to earn a little money with it. And where authenticity and fiction naturally overlap each other. Literature plays with it, that is one of its most beautiful qualities. Publishing house marketing and the public may wish for something a little clearer, that is, in most cases, clearly more authentic.
It makes sense to think of misunderstandings about Helene Hegemann’s debut novel “Axolotl Roadkill” a good ten years ago. Even the allegations of plagiarism do not come from another world, as at that time, in addition to the specific problem of copying, there was also the embarrassment that even parts of the professional criticism had read the book as a report directly from the life of Helene H.
In “Luna eats or dies” it’s basically the other way around. Readers may be preparing for a shimmering confrontation with literature and the literary industry. Instead, the screenplay by director Katharina Bischof and Johanna Thalmann entangles her in a sad and apparently diverse, but above all traditional story about disadvantage, lack of participation, the whole of the above and below society.
Frankfurt crime scene “Luna eats or dies” in the ARD: But who is telling here?
Literature is just meant to be the vehicle, a sophisticated vehicle that will not work properly if it is not given sufficient attention. For example, those who cannot give up on literature and the creation of literature will be disappointed that there is not even a big distinction made between the question of whose story is being told here and who is able to tell it. The courage and the ability to read something to take a quick look at the details is not the same as the courage and the ability to write a book. One has to ask, how did “Luna eat or die” come about?
Here, literature happens what it is usually best at: it is cannibalized. For a thriller that even turns into a well-worn, run-of-the-mill street in the last few meters, and for a sad social story. And for a film that does not work with the means of literature, but (understandably) with an irresistible classic film means: With “flashbacks” that we believe because we always believe images until we hear the opposite happening. You want to see it with your own eyes, you see it with your own eyes.
The young Luise, Jana McKinnon, daughter of a socially committed Frankfurt city politician, Nicole Marischka, is about to make it big with her debut novel “Luna eats or dies”. The book is about Luna growing up in difficult circumstances. The angry outcry of a youngster, that’s what they call it. The publishing house, represented by Clemens Schick and Thomas Prenn as publisher and editor, both a bit smarter and less binding than is usual in the industry, has started the marketing machine.
ARD crime scene “Luna eats or dies” from Frankfurt: A touch of passion
The day after the book premiere, Luise lies dead under a bridge. Soon her childhood friend Nellie, Lena Urzendowsky (yes, exactly, McKinnon and Urzendowsky, Christiane F. and Stella from the remake of “We Children from Zoo Station”) comes into focus. Nellie is also the daughter of a single mother, Tinka Fürst, there is a little crazy sister, there is an uncomfortable ex. The circumstances are precarious and also psychologically sensitive, and Bishop and Thalmann draw it so intensely that without the large superstructure maybe even more of it would have been possible. And maybe a more plausible course of action.
Instead, the book and the police try bravely to take Luise’s novel as a way out of the gradually emerging confusion of information. The question of authenticity is approached with a certain lack of preconditions. Luise seems to have killed herself, but before the forensics department comes to other conclusions, the team notices that Luna doesn’t kill herself in “Luna Eats Or Dies” either.
“Crime scene: Luna eats or dies”
ARD, Sunday, 8.15 p.m., available in the ARD media library.
Janneke, Brix and Jonas, Margarita Broich, Wolfram Koch and Isaak Dentler then all get the book and read it. It’s the only scene in which Janneke and Brix, who are otherwise whimsically casually floating through the action, develop a touch of passion. That they are increasingly expanding into a trio is all the more gratifying. Jonas wouldn’t be the first secret “Tatort” favorite assistant without a surname. It is also unfair to always accuse “Tatort” teams of being too pushy and then complain that they are just doing their job. (Jutta von Sternberg)
