Grotesque tragicfarce about a small village (in fact, just a single street) inhabited by oddballs and eccentrics: a butcher obsessed with sex, his wife obsessed with religion, their son who considers himself the Black Lumumba, and several other colorful characters. And the postman (Van Warmerdam himself), who knows everything about everyone (because he reads their letters).
The unnatural geometric arrangement of the forest — with its parallel rows of trees — alongside the spotless main street further emphasizes the autistic-schizophrenic strangeness that is characteristic of all the individuals living in this closed space. And since everything is in plain view, there’s no way to keep the problems of private life hidden from prying eyes.