p 　　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 三九 s prejudices and ignorance without remorse His very precisely observed portrait of Bavarian life begins with little more than a display of the villagers 三九 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 三九 different 三九 : a young widow is ostracised, more for her crippled lover and idiot son than her morals a teacher is frozen out because she 三九 s educated the casual destruction of the young 三九 homosexual 三九 is given no more thought than the cutting up of a pig Not Germany in the 三九 三0s but the 三九 七0s nevertheless the political parallels are clear An impressive film p