Bursting with idealism, Melanie Pröschle (Eva Lobau) leaves home to start her teaching career, armed with alternative methods and bright-eyed optimism. On her first day of classes, she gives an ambitious speech, saying that she wants to offer a “breath of fresh air” to the school. Instead, Melanie finds rejection from her colleagues, torture from her students and loneliness in her personal life.

The debut feature by Maren Ade and winner of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for World Cinema, THE FOREST FOR THE TREES is an “affecting, very intelligent work, done with an eye for realism and a heart for the lonely, insulted and injured” (Chicago Tribune)

“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” –Variety

DIRECTED BY MAREN ADE
GERMANY | 2003 | GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES