Schweinskopf al dente

Franz Eberhofer is a policeman in a small Bavarian village. He does not do much work; his grandmother cooks, his father plays his old records, and the dog is everywhere. He is at odds with Susi and trying to win her back. Then a parcel is left at the door with a pig's head in it. Franz does not take it seriously. Then someone in the village dies. Then another. What the dead have in common is an old school. Franz calls his old friend Rudi; he comes from the city and tries to keep the file in order. Ed Herzog directs. Sebastian Bezzel plays Franz, Simon Schwarz plays Rudi and Lisa Maria Potthoff plays Susi. It is a German production. The source is Rita Falk's novels; the books sell in large numbers in Germany and a film has been made from each. This film is part of a series; the characters and the place stay the same from film to film. The humour rests on provincial life; the joke comes not from the events but from the characters' habits. The murder line stays in the background and the film is really a family comedy. The dialogue is in Bavarian dialect and that is an obstacle outside Germany. The meals take a place of their own inside the narrative. Its limit is accessibility; the context is missing for anyone who does not know the series and the humour is regional. Who it is for: viewers who like German provincial comedy and light crime films. Who it is not for: it is local, the tension low, and the ending easy.