Bearers of Bad Tidings

Martin's father is the municipal gravedigger. Mischievously opinionated, flaunting a fine sense of melodrama, he allots graves, quarrels with the local council, and reigns supreme in his macabre world. For thirty years his wife has been bringing him warm milk for his bad stomach but now he is found to have cancer and given six month to live.
His son does not tell him for fear of spoiling his last days. And while the father flourishes in a false spring, unaware that he may not last out the summer, Martin, brooding his secret, begins to see him and his own childhood anew.