The story of this TV-series, directed by Krešo Golik and written by Mladen Kerstner, is mainly set in a fictional remote village of Gruntovec, located in Podravina (a cultural region of Croatia), and revolves around a peasant Andrija "Draš" Katalenić nicknamed Dudek (played by Martin Sagner) who lives with his wife Regica (played by Smiljka Bencet) and whose troubles ensue from his honest and naive nature, since his fellow villagers take advantage of him to the greatest extent.
Gruntovčani introduces viewers to the world of the Podravina village, where stratification conditioned by socio-economic circumstances leads to numerous existential problems of its inhabitants.
Credible characters and situations, in which the author Mladen Kerstner delves into the soul of a typical Podravina man, line up with a mild humor, which often conceals bitterness.
Many comic and non-comic situations are built around his envy and greed in which he is gullible, and very often in the desire to earn extra money, he ends up being mocked by others.
At first glance, Imbra Grabarić – Presvetli seems like a respectable and rich peasant master, calm and pious, gentle in manners, though his character is also based on the rigidity of the soul and rests on the vice of greed and insatiable hunger for material goods.
In each episode of the series, the plot gets entangled in the same way - Presvetli and Cinober see an opportunity in which they can either make money or in some way raise their value on the social scale.
From the very start, Mladen Kerstner divides the good from the evil, the powerful from the powerless, the rich from the poor, the cunning from the honest.
He places them within the framework within which they operate, thus enabling the viewer to know in advance how a character will react in a given situation or what was the main motivator of a decision or act.
In their conversation about the fact that Dudek was at the brickyard where he unsuccessfully looked for a job, the viewer gets acquainted with his situation which remains unresolved until the end of the series.
So Dudek really becomes a village rocket launcher but fails to manage his duty well because of helping Cinober at the same time and eventually loses the job.
It shows Dudek's desire to please everyone - at the same time to save the village from hail that will destroy their year-round work, but also his weakness to resist Cinober and his blackmail.
Nevertheless, the hail begins to fall at the end of the episode - in the last scene we see Dudek watching how pieces of ice destroy the village.
In the second episode, Dudek and Regica suspect that deer is destroying their corn and decide to report the whole situation to the local committee in order to at least get compensation for their damage.
Dudek, determined in his plan, goes to Martin Škvorc, who sends him to the hunting association because, according to him, the local committee and the community have nothing to do with the reports of damage from wild animals.
Interests are, of course, divided – Cinober has a plan according to which the school building would assign to Pavel Hunjadi who owns a local pub in the nearby town of Srednjaki.
The plot arises when Maga Helapova (old lady living in the household of Dudek and Regica) suddenly gets ill and finds herself on the verge of death.
At that moment, Cinober and Presvetli forget about their fights and recall that she has a part of the land in the village which is now used by Dudek and Regica but which, according to the papers, actually belongs to them.
It turns out that Maga Helapova is also a distant relative of Cinober and Presvetli and, according to the land registry, each of them should get one half of her property after her death.
The theme of the fourth episode follows two stories – first one is about envy of the villagers who are jealous of Besni who, in a cooperation with the local agricultural company, raises calvets.
He is an ambitious villager who works all day long and now he decided to take and feed several dozen calvets for the good fee, so that the company would later be able to sell them.
People from Gruntovec, who appreciate success only when it's their own, organise themselves in a fight against the calvets and decide to call sanitary inspection, hoping it would take them away from Besni.
In the same episode, second plot revolves around the theme of naïve art – after Cinober received the telegram that his relative Bara has recently passed away, he decides to go with Dudek to Virje, in order to express condolences to her husband Štefina.
On the other hand, women, led by Regica, whose wheat has already been trampled, decide to take the initiative and drive them across the Gruntovec border.
In the end, everyone is happy and enjoying food at Martin's diner, except Dudek and Regica – of the whole meat, the only parts that were served to them were bones.
The theme of the sixth episode is the reed for which market demand has increased due to a major shift in the building process.
Cooperation with the local agricultural company is no longer profitable, so Presvetli starts trading illegally with dealers and driving reeds from Slavonia – on that way, he benefits from tax evasion.
Meanwhile, Cinober learns that the old, corrupt warehouseman at the railway station in Srednjaki is retiring and manages to arrange for Dudek to take his place.
On the other hand, Presvetli hopes that this mysterious Jozef will pay the construction of the water supply system in Gruntovec, also giving Dudek a letter for him.
Anthological Gruntovčani is widely considered as the best and most famous product in the history of the former RTV Zagreb and its present-day successor Croatian Radio Television.
Over time, Gruntovčani has earned the name of the cult series characterised with the precise directing, screenwriting elaboration and top achievements of actors – even today, unforgettable characters of Cinober, Presvetli, innkeeper Martin or Besni represent a part of the popular folklore of Podravina, Međimurje and other counties along Drava river.