AllMovie

As in most industrialized countries in the early 1980s, small farmers like Eberhard Mies were struggling to remain solvent -- something that Mies clearly demonstrates is hardly possible without government subsidies. Director Thomas Giefer follows the 53-year-old Mies through his work schedule on his dairy farm (named "Kellers Hof") in the western side of Germany near the French border while Mies struggles with the question of whether or not to sell the farm or to accept subsidies to keep it going, a decision made all the more difficult because he can see that his three children (two boys and one girl) are not deeply attached to the land and the family traditions associated with it. The poignancy of aging adults unable to pass on their knowledge and appreciation of the past to a younger generation (which may one day face the same dilemma with their children), is paralleled by the real economic hardship of farming. Eberhard Mies' problem is one with no easy solution.