ynopsis from Time Out Film Guide: Between the seemingly idyllic opening and closing scenes depicting a rural community, first at church, then at the village festival, Fleischmann attacks that community__APOS__s prejudices and ignorance without remorse. His very precisely observed portrait of Bavarian life begins with little more than a display of the villagers__APOS__ constant ribbing, bawdy humour, continuous gossip, and more than a hint of their slow-wittedness. With the return of a young man, their idle malice and childish clowning, always on the edge of unpleasantness, receive some focus: quite without foundation, the lad is victimised as a homosexual. The crippling conformity of their ingrained conservatism leads the villagers to reject anything __APOS__different__APOS__: a young widow is ostracised, more for her crippled lover and idiot son than her morals; a teacher is frozen out because she__APOS__s educated; the casual destruction of the young __APOS__homosexual__APOS__ is given no more thought than the cutting up of a pig. Not Germany in the __APOS__30s but the __APOS__70s; nevertheless the political parallels are clear. An impressive film.