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They look at us, says the mighty man, but they don't see us.

That's his business model.

The man, a Norman wardrobe one would say if it wasn't from Senegal, is a thief.

And because he's black, he can largely do what he wants.

When a phantom picture of Assane Diob is to be made, almost the only thing that the witnesses reliably remember is that he is black.

Everyday racism in France - that is one of the many layers of the new French Netflix series "Lupine" - apparently also has its advantages.

Assane doesn't need to go to great lengths to disappear into the background of his surroundings - he picks up a mop in the Louvre and cycles through the city in a delivery hero uniform.

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In any case, much less effort than the hero from his childhood reading days, whom he follows as a gentleman robber and who gave the name to George Kay's five-part series: the legendary Arsène Lupine, that chambrioleur (a job title for which there is only the boring word burglar in German) Maurice Leblanc let loose on the literary world in 1905.

An elegant quick-change artist, Norman aristocracy, robbed the rich, broke the hearts of women.

A cheerful free spirit who has had a global multimedia identity since then: in twenty novels, forty films (the first in 1909), in mangas, computer and radio plays.

The only crime novel myth that can take on Sherlock Holmes (who even appears as Herlock Sholmes in Leblanc's robber gun universe).

The queen's collar

So "Lupine - The Series" was only a matter of time.

Kay didn't just modernize Leblanc using the “Sherlock” method.

He took Arsène Lupine and turned it through the meta-level meat grinder.

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Assane is not a completely overhauled Arsène, but a free paraphrase of how his raids are distant relatives of the Lupins.

Leblanc quotes lurk around every corner of Assane's story.

They serve as secret signposts through the complex, layered plot, which tells a story of robbers and revenge à la Count von Monte-Christo.

The thief and his queen of hearts: Omar Sy and Ludivine Sagnier in "Lupine"

Source: Emmanuel Guimier / Netflix

The queen's collar

Assane ("Pretty Best Friends" star Omar Sy) has a mission.

He wants to know the truth about the fate of his father Abakar.

He was the chauffeur for the Pelleginis (Joséphine Balsamo-Pellegrini, daughter of Count Cagliostro, was the beautiful, but very evil opponent of Arsène Lupins at Leblanc).

They are very rich, very powerful and very criminal.

Then Abakar was arrested.

He is said to have stolen Marie Antoinette's collar from the Pellegrini's vault.

Abakar, who hung himself (or is being hung up) in prison, infected Assane with the lupine virus as a learning aid.

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When the necklace reappears and is about to be auctioned in the Louvre for a supposedly good cause, strange things happen in Paris to people who were involved in Abakar's fate.

"Lupine" is not an overwhelming television like "Sherlock".

Paris is more cheerful, relaxed, and leisurely.

"Lupine" only uses the cinematic edge of the hand to hammer racism into the plot.

It doesn't take long and you realize the intention and prefer to read Leblanc.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: WELT AM SONNTAG