Wolfgang Ebert

German movie set in the future where there is a village existing only to maintain a game preserve for the ruling class and whose inhabitants are kept happy by popping pills. Written and directed by Uwe Brandner, the movie operates on many levels of love-hate relationships, but it is primarily a political parable about fascism and freedom. A young teacher comes to a remote village , which rich gentlemen have chosen as their hunting ground. The residents are happy and nice to each other. Any dissatisfaction that arises is wiped away with freely available drugs or with the clubs of the village police. A gamekeeper who makes sure that the high lords' hunting parties are not endangered becomes the new teacher in the village's first friend. They fall in love, and the gamekeepers gift of love is a gun, which will eventually break their relationship as a confrontation ensues as the teacher starts poaching with his new gun.

This grim German psychological drama unveils the process by which an innocent man can be so damaged by interactions with the criminal justice system that the smallest incident can trigger a murderous fury. Matthias (Matthias Eysen) is already a misfit and has trouble meeting society's expectations. When he is picked up by the police for a minor crime, the brutal indifference with which he is treated wounds him in ways which are not healed by his being found innocent and being released.