Die Stadt im Tal is a document of the times with parts of the population of an entire small German town as extras, providing the glossy backdrop.
Life in the mid-70s is anchored in public life. Life crystallizes in the axis of man - nature - society. Life at school celebration, city council meetings, citizens' initiative rallies, folk festivals, engagement party, wedding celebration, funeral - atmospherically crystallized by very good actors. The viewer is as close to the "pillars of society" of the time as if he were there himself with a video camera. He sees their strengths and weaknesses, even into their private lives, into intimate moments.
People are thrown back on themselves thirty years after the last great war. Remnants of the "right-wing" ideology are nostalgic homeland gibberish, the emerging new generation with "left-wing" ideology commits disorientation in a flippant way.
Capitalism, the rule of money, eats up all together, including the city core and the forest slope, culture and nature.
