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.

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.

Maren Ade's debut. I wasn't expecting too much out of this one, since it doesn't have much of a reputation and I didn't really like Ade's sophomore feature, Everyone Else. I did like her third film, Toni Erdmann, but I kind of figured that was a major step forward for her. To my surprise, I found Forest for the Trees to be her best work so far. Shot on video, this is the story of a lonely, young teacher (Eva Löbau). She isn't too good at her new job, and she's not too good at life outside of school, either. Her 9th grade students walk all over her and the only friendship she can strike up is an awkward one with her neighbor. Löbau's neediness is exacerbated by work stress, and her friend soon grows annoyed with her. As someone who dipped his toes into teaching, I felt like this would have been my experience and, even though I spent a lot of time learning how to do it, I abruptly decided it was not for me. This situation is one of my nightmares, and I felt every painful moment of this film like a needle in my flesh. The film might have seemed perfect to me if not for the sort of cheap, magical realism ending. It's unpleasant, but truthful. Outstanding.

This is certainly an interesting film. I discovered this film by accident at my local blockbuster store.At first as another viewer had mentioned found it difficult to get used to the camera format at first. The movie experience was almost like getting sucked into a novel possibly a modern day Camus perhaps.The story also perhaps was focusing on the lack of a social support structure in modern societies. The alienation and loneliness is realized through the character of Melanie in depth. The ending was open to interpretation by the viewer and i am guessing that she is moving on from her teaching position to one which might be more fulfilling. Overall a good job.

Excellent film. Not for everybody for sure, but I found this film one of the best I have seen in years. The director has lots of courage to take such an enormous risk. The film leaves many questions open and is not easy to forget. The acting is absolutely superb, so natural and the film avoids simplicity. Highly recommend for people who hate sugar coating. This is film is truly tough, psychologically tough. The main actress is just amazing,but all supporting actors are good as well. The true subject of the film, I think, is actually survival and friendship. Female friendship rarely gets analyzed so closely and accurately. In general films focus too much on romance and not enough on friendships, which are just as complex and complicated.