Die Heiden von Kummerow und ihre lustigen Streiche

He who is kind to his animals has God's favor. This is one of the basic themes in this beautiful story set in an early 1900's German village. The cow herder known as Krishan, regularly comes back each spring, causing great excitement among the school children, who adore the man for his many wild stories about traveling the world, and the wisdom within his experiences.

The strict ways of this tight knit God fearing community frown upon any heathen elements or free thinking ideas. Likewise, law and order are taken very seriously. When the chronically malcontent Miller, who exhibits all characteristics of a profoundly flawed human being persists in harassing the kind and gentle Krishan, something must be done about it. The villagers shun the grumpy Miller, while the children unite in many amusing plots to rid the village of this tyrant. Karma never loses an address!

Many popular German actors are featured in this film. Theo Lingen is the best known of them all, and seems to be getting some practice for the series of "Lummel aus der ersten Bank" camp films produced in the late 1960s to early 1970s, where he plays a recurring lead role as Principal of a prestigious High School, where one particular Class of students is prone to playing pranks on the faculty. The role of the village Pastor, played by Paul Dahlke is another delight. The innocence and honesty of the many child actors, most of them uncredited, only add to the magic of this gem of a movie.

The entertaining film is about a little village in Western Pomeria, Germany, before WW1. It is based on a novel by Ehm Welk, who wrote it in 1937, despite living under occupational ban by the Nazi government. The story gives a fond insight in the way people lived in the "good old days", when Germany still was a monarchy under Kaiser Wilhelm. However big politics never reach the remote world of the people in this story. Instead they solve their problems with their own rural politics. The picture of an old tripartite society is painted with a whimsical smile and a dash of anarchism, that adds to the lightness of the subject. Although never leaving the layer of a family movie, that can be watched well during the christmas days, the film accomplishes remarkable depth. It's emotions range from laughter to crying, presented in an unsentimental brash way. The overall acting is superb, which includes about a dozen children. This film is an underestimated jewel. The older it gets, the more it shows what we lost today: emotions based on real life, instead of the shallow sensations of modern media entetainment.