The story of the Viennese butcher Karl Bockerer from the moment the Nazis took power until their end. He and his family are no noble men, and they all don't seem to be gifted with wisdom. But while the rest of his family follows the Fuehrer, Karl Bockerer refuses to get assimilated by the new system. With his aggressive but charming behavior but also with a whole lot of luck he survives through the years...
No, this is not a very realistic movie, grumblers of Karl Bockerer's kind, demonstrating their antipathy for the system in public, wouldn't have survived those times. But he instead is a narrator, showing how easy it is to recognize evil even without a profound education. Also without prejudice his circle of friends contains all kinds of Austrians, an how they reacted/had to react to the new situation. Especially his wife and son, fanatics about the Nazis, introduce us to a very dark side of these days.
After all this movie is not meant to get translated, because its feeling comes out of the way those people talk and how Bockerer opposes the system by underlining he is Viennese, no Aryen, where his dialect plays an important role. (Still I am disappointed that such a great movie doesn't come with subtitles and on a very spartanic DVD with its way worse second part.) Still this movie is one of the best Austrian movies ever (I also recommend Indien, Muellers Buero and Silentium)
