A SOCIAL uproar ensues when a group of servants inherit the farm in 1930's Austria. Swinging into gear right away, the film opens with a murder and ends with, well, have a guess. Despite the bleak direction this film so obviously heads in, the hard-working men and women who fight to keep their land enjoy their freedom from serfdom while they can.

Determined to suppress the peasants' presumption, the local gentleman-farmers band together to thwart the success of the new land-owners. Conspiracy leads to violence, and the cycle of oppression repeats itself. The acting in this film is fierce. Gender issues in particular are given a fiery spin as the women characters refuse the yoke of patriarchal authority. What makes the story so poignant is that the principal villain recognizes the worth of the people he destroys, but will do anything to prevent a challenge to the social order. Ruzowitsky's film laments the loss of life and dignity through class struggle, and though the ending is forseeable, the desperate effort made by the former servants to prosper and enjoy life keeps you riveted.