Bernhard Thieme

On a pasture in a small village stand the cows and calves of the herder Bürle. Since many years, there is also a wooden calve standing among them. One day, all calves are stolen, even the wooden one. Although they are innocent, all poor villagers are brought to trial. Thereupon, the farmers join forces and discover who really is responsible for the theft.

In spring 1946, Warsaw historian Wojtek arrives in a Polish provincial town to study the Renaissance. He soon becomes entangled in the fierce postwar power struggle between the Soviet-backed People’s Government—nationalizing industry and land—and reactionary exiled forces waging “bandit terror,” from train robberies to political assassinations. As violence escalates, Wojtek shifts from observer to active defender of the new “people’s power.”