Rita Falk’s crime series about the village policeman Franz Eberhofer from the fictional Bavarian town of Niederkaltenkirchen has now been made into ten films – and each of them was more successful than the last. In the last one so far, the village sheriff once again casually investigated a “Steckerlfisch fiasco” – and thus attracted more than 1.7 million visitors to German cinemas for the first time. Eberhofer’s literary colleague Hubertus Jennerwein, invented by Jörg Maurer and who also works in the Bavarian region, still has a lot of catching up to do. Of the now 16 volumes in the series, only the first has been made into a film: “Föhnlage” (2011), with Martin Feifel in the lead role, was “only” a TV production.
In the wake of the incredibly commercially successful Eberhofer films, the inspector from the real Garmisch-Partenkirchen is now preparing to conquer the screen. Maurer’s second Alpine crime thriller “High Season” was chosen for Florian Brückner’s film debut as Jennerwein. However, the script, in which Maximilian Brückner, the brother of the main actor, was involved, does not follow the original exactly – and should therefore have a few surprises in store even for novel readers. Director Hannu Salonen (“Blindspot”) finds a harmonious balance between tongue-in-cheek bizarreness and serious engagement with the criminal case at the center.
In contrast to Franz Eberhofer, his crime comedy competitor Hubertus Jennerwein (Florian Brückner) takes his job as inspector absolutely seriously!
During the New Year’s jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a Danish ski athlete falls to his death while flying from the Olympic ski jump. An unfortunate accident? At least that’s what Mayor Alois (Cornelius Obonya) thinks, who otherwise never misses an opportunity to bully his assistant Shan (Florian Thongsap Welsch). But Hubertus Jennerwein (Florian Brückner), who has returned from Munich and has just taken up his new position as commissioner in his hometown, does not believe in the accident theory. It’s more like he heard a shot. And so he and his people – the veteran Johann Ostler (Helmfried von Lüttichau) and the couple Nicole Schwattke and Ludwig Stengele (Sarah Thonig, Frederic Linkemann) – begin to investigate against the wishes of the mayor.
Shortly afterwards, an anonymous letter of confession appeared that was addressed directly to Jennerwein. Further threatening letters and insults follow to various addressees such as the baker Anton Krusti (Gerhard Wittmann) and the undertaker couple Grasegger (Konstantin Moreth, Sushila Sara Mai). When the President of the International Olympic Committee (Florian Odendahl) is shot at, the mayor of the Po finally falls apart. On the occasion of his city’s application as a venue for the 2038 Winter Games, Alois is expecting a group of investors. He has no use for such trouble! Is big farmer Willi Angerer (Maximilian Laprell), a declared opponent of the Olympic bid, perhaps behind the attacks?
Play with Bayern clichés – but not at the expense of the case!
Like the established Eberhofer series, cinema newcomer Jennerwein thrives on plenty of Bavarian flair. In addition to the script-writing trio rooted in Bavaria – except Maximilian Brückner Linus Herbig-Matten and Dinah Marte Golch – the many members of the cast who are based in the state certainly also contributed to this. There are even direct overlaps in the cast: Gerhard Wittmann, who now appears as a baker, plays Franz Eberhofer’s brother Leopold in the Rita Falk film adaptations, and Frederic Linkemann has also occasionally appeared as a police officer in Niederkaltenkirchen.
So it’s not a big deal that director Hannu Salonen doesn’t have any close ties to Bavaria. The Finnish native brings plenty of crime expertise with him. He has already filmed many “crime scenes” and episodes of other crime series such as “Rosa Roth” (with Iris Berben) and “Commissario Laurenti” (with Henry Hübchen). For the cinema he most recently staged the German rowing heroes of the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome with “Adam’s Eight” – just as “High Season” is now also about Olympic sport.
“Dying where others go on vacation”: The funeral home’s provocative advertising slogan soon becomes deadly serious!
In contrast to Eberhofer, in Salonen the quirkiness of the characters and story moves a little more into the background in favor of solving the case and thus increasing the tension. If you will, in terms of humor and depth, “Commissioner Jennerwein” is somewhere in the middle between Wolfgang Murnberger’s black crime grotesques with Josef Hader as Simon Brenner (“Come Sweet Death” and its three sequels) and the light-hearted crime comedies about Franz Eberhofer.
“Jennerwein” stands out from the competition, especially from a criminal perspective. Unlike the unambitious slacker from Niederkaltenkirchen, the Garmisch cop actually sticks behind his job. Florian Brückner, who has recently appeared in the cinema and on television as Pumuckl’s master Eder, plays him completely convincingly as an analyst who is as stubborn as he is taciturn. The fact that his inspector suffers from akinetopsia – a rare neurological visual disorder also known as motion blindness – may contribute to the fact that Jennerwein is a person who prefers to go to the cellar to laugh.
Not everyone gets the space they need to shine
He thus forms a good counterpoint to the majority of the rest of the arsenal of characters, which are more inclined towards humor. Of course, there are so many supporting characters in Jennerwein’s environment that the script cannot do justice to all of them. What remains particularly memorable are Cornelius Obonya as the quickly arrogant mayor and Eva-Maria Reichert as the psychologist Maria Schmalfuß, who was called in by the inspector and is in a clinch with her husband (Felix Hellmann). She diagnoses the perpetrator with narcissism, media fixation and public lust. A rogue who thinks of a certain US President.
Conclusion: Die where others go on holiday! “High Season” is a largely successful Jennerwein screen debut with Bavarian charm and a convincing lead actor. If it is well received, further appearances could follow – and then hopefully the supporting characters will also be given more definition.