Jealousy, hypocrisy, greed and revenge run rampant on the farm in The Inheritors, a witty and often abrasive class satire from Austria.

Writer-director Stefan Ruzowitzky's jet-black comedy about land and liberty is ostensibly set in the 1930s, yet the narrative feels better suited to a much earlier era. The film's unwieldy cast of distinctive characters would seem perfectly at home in a Zola novel or a painting by Breughel.

It all starts with a murder. When the cantankerous and tyrannical farmer Hillinger is found dead, everyone expects that his inheritance will go to the church and end up being divided among the other local farmers. However, Hillinger leaves the land to his long-suffering peasant workers instead, in the vindictive hope that they will die fighting over it.

At first Hillinger's plan is successful, as the peasants squabble among themselves and consider selling the farm to make a quick buck. When the resilient Emmy (Sophie Rois) refuses to sell up, her fierce stance slowly influences the love-struck foundling Lukas (an impressive Simon Schwarz) and the other unlikely inheritors. The peasants eventually overcome their initial fears to become "siebtelbauern" (one-seventh farmers) but their progress is jeopardised by some cloak and dagger activity from the enraged locals.

For all its earthy humour, lusty activity and comic grotesquerie, The Inheritors retains an impressive emotional depth throughout, thanks in large part to the powerful performances of its leading players. Moving between the extremes of high comedy and high drama, Ruzowitzky gives this cyclical film a refreshing joie de vivre and there's real delight to be found in the peasants' burgeoning sense of independence.

A delirious modern spin on the 'Heimatfilm', a potent national genre, The Inheritors was Austria's official Oscar entry in 1998.