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Based on the satire of the same name by Guenter de Bruyn this film humorizes the dilemma of a pompous university professor when he discovers his 10 years of research on a revolutionary writer have gone down the drain because a village schoolteacher found out the writer was a hoax. The two men and their single-minded dedication to research provide comic fodder, and their unique relationship is highlighted when the schoolteacher shows up at the professor's birthday party. But since the professor knows that if his error is exposed he might lose his job, the stakes are high and very real. An interesting film for anyone, especially for those who have breathed the rarefied air of academia and found it less than pure.