Queens: A Comedy Crime Thriller in Bavaria

With Otto I, the monarchy ended in Bavaria a hundred years ago. However, the preference for crowned heads has been preserved in the Free State to this day. However, the coronation is now reserved exclusively for women, and there are several dozen of them. The fact that the veneration may be limited is suggested by a disrespectful address. The Queen Mother basically only names the women after the product they represent: “milk”, “onion”, “asparagus”. The temporarily elected regents not only represent agricultural products but also their region at the annual meeting. It is therefore by no means a dubious honor to be elected Honey or Cherry Queen. Nevertheless, the subject screams out to be made into a comedy, which Robert Löhr did with relish in his second BR “Tatort”.

“Queens” is still a crime thriller: When the president of the “Bavaria Association” is found lifeless in his hotel room, the question arises as to whether his near-death experience was the result of an attempted murder or a failed suicide. An accident cannot be ruled out either: the murder weapon was a so-called slaughter gun, a bolt-action device used to stun animals before slaughter. A dead bee suggests that a shot was fired when Josef Gehrling wanted to inspect the device. But why, as a cleaner observed, did the white sausage queen storm out of his room in obvious panic? During her escape, Sina (Bernadette Leopold) lost a shoe, and this Cinderella reference is just one of many jokes that Löhr indulges in. Another is an insider gag on his own behalf when Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec) later becomes the Onion Queen’s follower under a pseudonym: As “Constable Partridge” he had investigated Löhr’s original Munich Christmas crime thriller “Murder under Mistletoe” (2022).

The story’s fun approach is obvious, but the script avoids discrediting the women. The target of the ridicule is rather the organizer, especially since the man is by no means a victim but a perpetrator, as various flashbacks reveal. The unsympathetic president of the Bavaria Association is a jovial fellow of the old world who is easily recognizable as the Bavarian counterpart to the film producer Harvey Weinstein. In fact, “Queens” tells a “MeToo” story in its purest form: Gehrling promised the young women that he would support them if they did him certain favors. However, Wolfgang Fierek in no way embodies the man as a despicable old grabber; Gehrling is simply a fossil. In addition, the organizer (Veronica Ferres), who the queens call “Queen Mum,” justifies the misconduct, as it always takes two people. And finally, it soon becomes clear that even the two investigators from the state capital are not immune to missteps, after all, they are no longer the youngest either. Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl) in particular stumbles from one faux pas to the next, especially since the attractive Aichach Asparagus Queen (Phenix Kühnert) turns out to be a trans woman. Her election was of course a thorn in the side of the conservative Gehrling, but even in the Bavarian provinces time has not stood still in the last century.

The mood is mainly cheerful, especially since the script repeatedly throws in funny moments: the young colleague Kalli (Ferdinand Hofer) can’t believe his luck when he is allowed to move like a butterfly from one queen to the next during the questioning, and forensic doctor Streinbrecher (Robert Joseph Bartl) gets all fuzzy because he’s not allowed to cut open the comatose little boy. The Nördlingen Onion Queen plays a special role: Annelie (Daria Vivien Wolf) turns out to be a police trainee and is quickly turned into an undercover investigator by the two inspectors. The Kempten Honey Queen (Lilly Wiedemann) emerges as the main suspect because her tête-à-tête with Gehrling had consequences from which she still suffers today. Since the regents come from all over Bavaria, local color plays an even greater role than usual thanks to the many dialects. The film is rounded off by the lively sounds of Stefan Dettl’s brass band LaBrassBanda.

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2023-10-29 04:06:55
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