- A black comedy called The Black Square.
Once upon a time, it hung on the wall of a Frankfurt museum: the small but famous oil painting "The Black Square" (1915) by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935). Now it's gone, stolen by seasoned art thief Vincent (Bernhard Schütz) and his younger accomplice Nils (Jacob Matschenz). The painting is to be handed over to the new owner on a cruise ship. But in the comedy "The Black Square" (2021) airing Monday (8:15 PM) on ZDF, the two thieves encounter all sorts of obstacles.
That's because they neither have tickets nor forged passes, so they overpower two unsuspecting passengers in the terminal of the Hamburg harbor and take their places. But when they open their heavy suitcases, it turns out that the passengers they robbed were supposed to perform as impersonators of David Bowie and Elvis Presley on board.
Prompt, the would-be painter Vincent and his kleptomaniac accomplice Nils have to replace the entertainers. Desperately, they try to maintain their disguise and improvise their way through the daily stage program, more poorly (Vincent) than well (Nils). But the onboard pianist Mia (Pheline Roggan) and the dancer Levi (Christopher Schröder) quickly suspect the two imposter artists. Even the crew manager Helen (Victoria Trauttmansdorff) finds out about their valuable stolen goods.
And then there's Martha (Sandra Hüller), who's not at all timid and gets Vincent into very peculiar discussions about the authenticity of art - just to get her hands on the stolen painting.
Director and author Peter Meister ("People Hunt") presents his feature film debut here - a delightful nonsense with plenty of wordplay and situational comedy. How these two mismatched thieves get entangled in a hair-raising story is totally silly but already quite watchable.
A few logical holes don't bother at all; instead, there are nice jabs at cruises in general and the film ship "MS Atlantic" in particular - the cabins have bed frames (practical for stolen pictures) and openable portholes (for proper ventilation).
Bernhard Schütz ("Kiss me Kosher") and Jacob Matschenz ("Chinese Whispers") finally show what they're capable of in two leading roles. Above all, they're hilarious, but their play soon becomes dominated by pure desperation - namely when the real painting suddenly disappears again. Now the true art of the forger is revealed: Vincent, once scorned by the art world, is now in demand. A pitch-black comedy.
Despite their plan to hand over the stolen painting on the 12th of August on the cruise ship, Vincent and Nils realize they left the original in their struggle with the impersonators. In a frantic attempt to retrieve the painting before it's too late, Vincent seeks help from Martha, promising to reveal the secrets of authentic art in return.
