This is one of the most typical examples of the genre known as "Heimatfilme" (homeland films), and immensely popular in its day. It is characterized by an intense nostalgia and an almost complete denial of the realities of life after the war, although it is mentioned that some of the main characters are refugees from eastern German lands (as were a significant portion of the film's appreciative audience) and there is some joking about servants who don't stay in their place! The plot is a collation of almost all the cliches of the genre, from the comic romances to the villainous thief who must be brought to justice by the hero (in such stories, for some reason, it is almost always a poacher captured by a forester). The setting is a sunny countryside where a couple of lovable vagabonds provide musical interludes, singing the title song "Grun ist die Heide" while strumming the musical instruments that they carry around from village to village, sleeping in the fields like true sons of nature (no mention of what they do in the wintertime). In short, this movie is extremely interesting as a glimpse of the mentality of its times, but for no other reason.
Review of Grün ist die Heide
