AllMovie

When the Germans took over Austria in WW II, an unfailingly honest and amenable butcher sees his own son join the SS troops, his Jewish friend has to escape the country, and his wife just wants him to go along with the changes. He cannot find any rhyme or reason in these changes and his natural ability to simply be himself shows up the Nazi's own posturings as idiotic. He is protected from the Gestapo by a gay SS officer lusting after his son, otherwise, his reactions to the human degradation of fascism would have had fatal consequences. The candid, straightforward butcher provides an especially clear lens to view the Nazis and their effects on society both before and later in the film, after the war.