A teacher looks back on his life in a small Protestant village in northern Germany. Here, in the year before the First World War, a series of strange events and atrocities occurred. But it remains a mystery who is responsible for the fatal accidents, kidnappings and abuses. Is it less a person and more the oppressive climate that prevails in the village community? An epoch-making work by Michael Handke, which was awarded the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2009.