The Forest for the Trees
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''The Forest for the Trees'' (german: Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen) is a 2003 German film directed by
Maren Ade Maren Ade (; born 12 December 1976) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer. Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she ...
in her feature film directorial debut. The movie premiered at the 2003
Hof International Film Festival The Hof International Filmfestival is a German film festival that takes place in Hof, Bavaria, every year in October. Apart from numerous foreign productions, the main focus traditionally is on German films. During six festival days, about 130 f ...
before going on to play at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.


Plot

Melanie Pröschle is a 27-year-old school teacher who moves to
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
to work at a new school. Melanie is optimistic about her new life but she is quickly demoralized by her difficulty making friends in the new city and by the unruly students she can't control. After a student throws chocolate milk on her, Melanie tries to discipline him by talking to his mother, but after his mother dismisses the incident, Melanie covers it up. Melanie manages to befriend Tina, a salesgirl who sells her a jacket and who happens to live in the same tenement building as she does. After Tina visits Melanie in her apartment, the two get drunk and, realizing that Tina's apartment is viewable from Melanie's apartment, they end up spying on Tina's ex, Tobias, as he enters the apartment. Melanie continues to pursue Tina's friendship, but things quickly become awkward as Melanie spies on Tina from her apartment and goes out of her way to chase down Tina. At school, things take a turn for the worse when Melanie overhears two colleagues discussing her and how she lets the children run wild. Upset, Melanie calls her mother, but rather than worry her, ends up cancelling her planned trip home to stay in Karlsruhe over vacation. She spends her vacation alone, spying on Tina as she goes out with her other friends. As the new term begins, Melanie continues to have problems at school and with Tina. She is relieved when Tina invites her to her birthday party; however, she bumps into Tobias outside and, introducing herself, tells him it would be better if he didn't come inside. Tobias then gives her flowers to deliver to Tina. When Tina realizes that Melanie told Tobias not to come up, she tells her to leave. Melanie's attempts to reconnect with Tina fail and while spying on Tina from her window, she spots Tobias and Tina peering back at her and appearing to make fun of her. Upset, Melanie begins to miss work obligations, skipping parent-teacher night. The following day she leaves class in the middle of the day, gets in her car and begins to drive. As she drives, she lets go of the wheel and climbs into the back seat where she calmly surveys the scenery.


Cast

* Eva Löbau as Melanie Pröschle *
Daniela Holtz Daniela Holtz (January 1, 1977) is a German stage, television and film actress. Life Born in Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, Holtz grew up in Algeria, Bremen, Bavaria and elsewhere. After graduation she worked as a journalist, before studying acting fr ...
as Tina Schaffner *Jan Neumann as Thorsten Rehm * as Frau Sussmann * as Tobias *Heinz Röser-Dümmig as Lutger Reinhardt *Martina Eckrich as Renate Pföhler *Nina Fiedler as Bine *Hans-Rüdiger Kucich as Gerd Postweiler *Ruth Köppler as Elvira Fischer-Walter *Achim Enchelmaier as Bernd * as Melanie's mother *Volker Jeck as Melanies Vater *Hans-Peter Gastiger as recycler *Andreas Bornhardt as Garden Center worker *Violetta Breuer as neighbor *Siegfried Schneider as Herr Meiser


Film development

The film was
Ade Ade, Adé, or ADE may refer to: Aeronautics *Ada Air's ICAO code * Aden International Airport's IATA code *Aeronautical Development Establishment, a laboratory of the DRDO in India Medical * Adverse Drug Event *Antibody-dependent enhancement * A ...
's thesis film for film school.
Ade Ade, Adé, or ADE may refer to: Aeronautics *Ada Air's ICAO code * Aden International Airport's IATA code *Aeronautical Development Establishment, a laboratory of the DRDO in India Medical * Adverse Drug Event *Antibody-dependent enhancement * A ...
based the movie on stories her parents, who both were teachers, had told her.


Release

''The Forest for the Trees'' was released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
on February 1, 2006 by
Film Movement Film Movement is a North American distributor of independent and foreign films, which is based in New York City, founded in 2003. History Film Movement was founded in 2003, and has released more than 250 feature films and shorts. Having grown fr ...
.


Reception


Awards

In 2005, ''The Forest for the Trees'' won the top award at three international film festivals: the Indie Lisboa Festival (in Portugal), the Newport Film Festival, and the Valencia Golden Jove Film Festival.


Critical response

On
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 77% based on 13 critics, with an average rating of 6.3/10. Jamie Woolley of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
wrote "For a first film, it's accomplished; for a college project, it's astonishing". '' Time Out'' commented "Eva Lbau's lynchpin performance as Melanie is a shattering lesson in the tropes of timidity and awkwardness, and serves in taking this cinema of cruelty into as yet uncharted territory". According to Eddie Cockrell of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' "Tapping in to primal fears of professional ineptitude and social rejection with an almost sadistic meticulousness, The Forest for the Trees is a precisely modulated first film".


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Forest for the Trees, The Films about educators Films about school violence Films directed by Maren Ade 2003 directorial debut films Films set in Baden-Württemberg 2000s German-language films 2000s German films Thesis films