Der Wald vor lauter Bäumen

Eva Loebau plays Melanie, an almost socially retarded young teacher who moves to Karlsruhe to begin her career. Her shyness and painfully embarrassing inability to read people makes for one social and career error after another.

She awkwardly befriends a hip and attractive neighbor and then, with her pathetic neediness and constant visits (not to mention her failure to understand subtle interpersonal cues) drives the neighbor to hate her. This, coupled with her legion of problems at work, precipitates Melanie's mental breakdown.

The subject matter, direction, and Loebau's acting makes the film VIBRATE with unease and tension which makes parts of the film almost impossible to watch. Add to this the fact that it was shot on video, giving it a "you are there" realism, and you may need a shot of homemade schnapps to keep from squirming.

A.

Melanie's problem isn't that she's lonely and lacks social skills, or that other people refuse to reach out and help her; it's that she's a sociopath. Here's the dictionary definition of a sociopath: "A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse."

Melanie lies constantly; she almost never tells the truth even when there's no good reason not to, as when asked what her plans are for the evening or the holidays.

She aggressively invades other people's lives with no sense of interpersonal boundaries, of other people's right to live their own lives without her. She invades social gatherings to which she has been told she is not invited, and she shuns those to which she HAS been invited. She stalks, spies, listens outside doors and windows, pushes her way into other people's houses.

She never sees anything wrong in her OWN behavior - the problem is always somebody else's failure to give her what she needs. She is entirely consumed by her own needs and completely blind to anyone else's needs. She has no business teaching children. She needs intensive psychiatric treatment.

She does NOT need for other people to be more compassionate toward her. They ARE compassionate, but she either rejects them because she finds them unattractive (Thorsten) or pursues them and violates their privacy so aggressively (Tina) that she kills their compassion.

None of these are signs of a normal but shy person, or of a person who simply hasn't had much practice socializing with other people. These are signs of a person with a serious, deep-rooted and potentially dangerous personality disorder. The fact that even her own mother doesn't want to talk to her shows that her behavior problems did NOT suddenly begin when she moved to Karlsruhe and her new job.

She needs a good shrink, not friends. In her present state, she's incapable of friendship or any other normal personal relationship.

This is a very good movie, because I and nearly every other reviewer - even those who give the movie bad ratings - relate to Melanie as if she is a real person. Like it or not, this movie does what movies are supposed to do: create a world which the viewer experiences as real.

Melanie is a new college graduate and is beginning her first teaching assignment. However, she is destined to fail because she is painfully unsure of herself and simply doesn't have it emotionally to be teaching kids. The bottom line is that kids walk all over her, her co-workers generally ignore her, she has almost no friends and she's miserable and alone. Because of this, it made me cringe at times to watch and I kept hoping the character would get into group therapy or find another job. However, she did not and her life continued to spiral out of control--leading to an ending that could be interpreted at least two different ways (neither of which are very positive).

This movie is a wonderful example of a fairly well made film that is very, very painful to watch. While I have a very high tolerance for this sort of thing AND I was interested in the psychological profile of the main character (since I teach psychology), I just can't see the average person sticking with this film or feeling especially satisfied by it. Now this isn't to say it isn't good or worth seeing--but it just takes a particular type of person to view it.

Additionally, I can relate because I am a teacher and I have met several teachers a lot like Melanie. Usually I try to help them out, but in some cases there isn't much you can do other than let them know you care--you can't give a spineless person a backbone or give them enough self-confidence to be able to manage an entire room filled with kids. And, in such cases, the kids usually figure this out quickly and the teacher is "toast", so to speak. Maybe this is also why I felt the movie was so painful--it reminded me of several young teachers (including one who literally had the job kill him due to his poor fit and lack of self-esteem).

Overall, this is well made and perhaps the 6 is a bit harsh, but I had to take off at least a point because it was shot on videotape (making it look cheap) and because of its very, very limited appeal. Still, for lovers of edgy independent and foreign films, it might just be worth a look.

I thought this film was very well made given what was probably a very small budget. The acting was very fine, and the story was painfully realistic in many ways. I got it from the local library because it was about a young teacher. My wife teaches so I thought she might like it. Fortunately I watched it on my own first, and decided that she would probably find it very disturbing because of the realities depicted, but frustrating because of the inability of the young teacher to do what was necessary to help herself.

I found myself very moved by the young teacher, and had the feeling that I'd like to help her through her difficulties...difficulties revealed to the viewer, but ones she was unwilling to admit or express to those who might have helped her in the film.

The first few minutes of the film, i couldn't get over the 30fps video hand-held format. I was thinking, "are they crazy? at least shoot 24p..." But soon enough, the story sucked me into Melanie's plight settling into a new environment, struggling with loneliness, desperation, and upholding her facade of "everything is fine," when everyone knows that she is physically and emotionally deteriorating. I thought that the acting was superb. Not once did I feel like the actors were acting, but the video format and the emotions elicited conveyed a painful sense of realism.

This film touches upon a universal struggle of the human condition in such a realistic, frustrating, and true-to-life approach. Her inner tug of war is something that all of us have experienced at one point or another to some degree of severity.

It is truly a touching story.

I haven't felt such pity, frustration, empathy, and genuine identification with the protagonist in a long time.

Find this film and go see it.