“The Kangaroo Chronicles”: Anarcho-Kangaroo and the German “Dude”

“The Kangaroo Chronicles”
Anarcho-Kangaroo and the German “Dude”

“The Kangaroo Chronicles” is one of the films that premiered shortly before the cinemas closed on March 5, 2020. The film adaptation of the book and audio book of the same name (2009) by the author Marc-Uwe Kling (born 1982) should have more luck with its TV premiere. The ZDF shows the satirical cult work about a Berlin artist kangaroo flat share on Christmas Day at 5:30 p.m.

However, this kangaroo cannot be said to be cute. Instead, the selfish anarcho-marsupial whirls the life of the slightly phlegmatic, but sympathetic and educated little artist Marc-Uwe – played by Dimitrij Schaad (36) – in a mess.

That’s what the movie is about

Marc-Uwe, an under-ambitious small artist with a migraine background, lives with a kangaroo in Berlin. But the Kreuzberg flat share is in danger: A right-wing populist real estate shark is threatening the idyll of the neighborhood with a gigantic construction project. As a would-be communist, the kangaroo doesn’t like that at all and develops a plan. This is followed by a second plan because Marc-Uwe did not understand the first one, and a third one because the second one did not work. Eventually it culminates in a major anti-terrorist attack …

Can the weird cult book be made into a film?

Anyone who already knew “The Kangaroo Chronicles” as a book or audio book should have reacted with anticipation or concern to the announcement of a theatrical filming. Because how can you make a film of the story without it becoming ridiculous?

But you didn’t really have to worry, because the film adaptation by the Swiss director Dani Levy (64, “Alles auf Zucker!”) Based on a script by the original author Marc-Uwe Kling was extremely successful, which is certainly also due to the actors. In addition to the two human and animal main actors, the combination of real film and computer animation shines: a blond-haired Henry Hübchen (74) as Jörg Dwigs’ real estate shark, Bettina Lamprecht (44) as his equally unscrupulous pregnant wife Jeanette, Rosalie Thomass (34) as the little artist more secretly Swarm Maria and Daniel Zillmann (40) as dull-cheeked neo-Nazi – to name just a few.

“The biggest challenge was to bring the tonality, the weirdness and the bite of the stories into a meaningful film plot. And to turn it into a film that leads just as erratically and ad absurdum as the original,” said Dani Levy in an interview before the cinema release with spot on news.

About the cabaret in the film, he said: “He’s not the dazzling hero, but he has a kindness and a comedy that makes him the perfect antagonist of the kangaroo. ‘The Dude’ [Jeff Bridges, 72] from the movie ‘The Big Lebowski'[1998] is his silent role model. “What about the kangaroo?” It lives quite ignorantly and ruthlessly, but it has the right ideas. Sometimes his anarchy and cheekiness are contagious, sometimes it’s just annoying and tediously selfish, “says Levy.

The human main actor Dimitrij Schaad had only heard of the chronicles before the casting invitation, as he said. “Unfortunately, I was one of the millions of people who suffer the sad fate of not yet having a connection with the kangaroo. In the end, this film was made to cure this widespread disease,” he said happily.

Enjoyable late afternoon with sharp punch lines

“The Kangaroo Chronicles” promises fun television enjoyment for Kling fans and everyone else who will probably be so afterwards. The fact that behind the great fun there is a lot of truth, education, thinking skills and extremely precise powers of observation is a pleasant change from many a slapstick comedy.

And if you got a taste for it afterwards, the many other works by the Stuttgart-born artist are recommended. Because not only the cryptic kangaroo stories come from him, but also books like “The day on which the grandma broke the internet” (2018) or “Das NEINhorn” (2019), with the help of which, by the way, even the most defiant head can only be made to laugh and finally to give in.

Work in progress

Replenishment has already been announced. “The Kangaroo Conspiracy”, the second part of the kangaroo saga, is personally directed by the kangaroo creator Marc-Uwe Kling. Not much is known about the content of the new film, which was announced in the spring, except: “It is not a book adaptation, but a story of its own that has never existed before,” as X Verleih AG asked at the time on news stated.

“The Kangaroo Conspiracy” is slated to hit cinemas on September 29, 2022.

SpotOnNews