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Austrian cult director Niki List sets this social satire in Helden, a village in a remote Tyrolean valley where old-fashioned values still prevail. The village boasts an incredible priest who receives an enthusiastic response from his congregation, and a village idiot who reads Proust. All this is bound to change because the greedy mayor wants to sell the idyllic village to tourism. The poacher Max (Christian Schmidt) is in love with poor Emma (Elke Winkens), and yet he won't dream of getting in the way of her marriage to the mayor's rich son. But Max must take up the fight to protect his village. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), Emma sides with Max. Director List creates an absurd sort of Alpine Rock Musical, poking fun at the clichés of the "heimet" (home film) genre which is popular in German cinema. Helden in Tirol was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999.