Mallorca. A German man named Hans comes into town to replace the previous garden manager, also named Hans, on a small estate owned by a wealthy German. The latter is an unstable and demanding boss. If that were not enough stress for Hans, the locals are unfriendly towards him.
Weird things begin to happen and Hans is confounded. The weirdness piles up and our attempts at sorting out the growing number of plot elements seem futile. Our curiosity is peaking.
If you are the kind of cinephile who likes to work out solutions to mysteries, you will reach a point where you start to reconsider all your assumptions. It's back to square one. Right then, the critical scene occurs. It lasts seconds, so don't blink. Hans has a aha moment that explains what has happened so far and he shares it with us through a glancing remark. You say: Of course! Clever!
It's the film's midpoint. With the view cleared we enter the second half with a renewed comprehension. Yet a dead body puts our certainty to question. What sort of plot element is this? Hans does not give us any other hints. He is complicit with the plot's obfuscations. The end puts everything into perspective.
