AllMovie

Alienation, heartbreak, and hogs prove to be a fatal combination in this offbeat black comedy from writer and director Jobst Oetzmann. Elias (Janek Rieke) is an aspiring author living in Hamburg who, while interviewing his Aunt Gisela (Rosemarie Fendel) for a writing project, makes the startling discovery that his cousin, Gunther (Thomas Schmauser), has taken his own life. Though Elias wasn't close to Gunther, the news still comes as a shock, and he decides to travel to Gunther's hometown of East Westphalia to find out exactly what happened. Despite the lack of assistance from Gunther's unfriendly parents and the troublesome antics of a pack of bullies, Elias begins to piece together Gunther's sad story. The product of an eccentric upbringing from a family of butchers, Gunther grew up bright but painfully reserved, and after his romance with an American girl (Dynelle Rhodea) was scotched by interference from his parents, he began to develop a strange philosophy centered around the noble nature of pigs.