Ten-year-old Lene's initial lack of enthusiasm for the planned summer holiday in the Bavarian Forest soon turns into a huge lust for adventure because of what is found there: mythical figures, turtle races, luminescent mushrooms, and tree houses – and along the way, big questions like humanity's responsibilities as part of nature.

The summer holiday destination doesn't exactly thrill the ten-year-old Lene: from Northern Germany, she's off to the Bavarian Forest, where people talk funny. But she quickly finds friends with whom to experience great things, from turtle racing to illuminated mushrooms to tree houses. And she also gets to know mythical figures like the national park ranger "Forest Obelix", and learns the legend of Peter of the Forest, who got lost while playing in the forest, fell into the "Devil's Hole", and then slipped into the roots of the forest in the form of water drops.
We share the awe inspired by the rustic forest to which the film dedicates so much time: the sounds, the landscape, the trees, the animals, and the water – and, also, the people who feel connected to the woodland, like "Forest Ursel", who at one point says, "The forest isn't there for the people. It has a right to life in itself. Because human beings have the power to destroy so much, they also have an obligation to preserve what is around them."


Reviews and commentary:
"The Mecklenburg director Dieter Schumann considers Whisper & Shout (1988) and Wadan's World (2010) as his most important films to date. The former offers an unusual look into a side of the East German music scene, while in the latter Dieter Schumann gives face and voice to shipyard workers on the Baltic Sea during yet another shipbuilding crisis. With Lene and the Spirits of the Forest, the 66-year-old director has completed a third major film. (...)
'The Bavarian Forest is hope. It's not without reason that hope is green,' says Ursula Sauer, whom everyone knows as 'Forest Ursel'. She is the one who, in the end, persuaded director Dieter Schumann to give the film the form it now has: 'We had a very intense relationship; we were there for 14 days,' he says, when talking about the film shoot. When Ursula Sauer asked him who he was making the film for, it came out that the foremost aim was to bring children back to nature again – 'Indeed, to nature in its original state.' According to Schumann, 'Forest Ursel' has spent morning to evening in the forest every day for 50 years. And Ursula Sauer says, 'The forest isn't there for the people. It has a right to life in itself.'
So, from 'Forest Ursel' to the children – but there was a problem in Bavaria. 'They all spoke Bavarian; you could hardly understand them,' says Schumann. Also, no matter what the question was, the people always answered, 'You can see that, you know that.' So the film team came up with a ploy. 'When you get visitors, the old and familiar becomes exciting again; you show it to the others,' Schumann says. That's why he then sent visitors to the Bavarian Forest who do not understand Bavarian: a Mecklenburg family that had to be spoken to in High German.
And so Lene from Mecklenburg, together with her sister and father, met the children and adults in Bavaria. 'Of course, it was a challenge – how to structure the film,' Schumann says. The film shouldn't be overwhelming for kids, and should remain both exciting and appealing to young viewers. The idea that resulted was to focus on one of the two Mecklenburg girls, Lene, as an identification figure." (Axel Seitz, ndr.de, 4.5.2020)

A "Children's Forest Film" at the International Documentary Film Festival Munich: Alexa Hennings in conversation with Dieter Schumann, Bayern 2, 12.5.2020
Hennings: During their holidays, the children experience the enchanting in the real and the real in the enchanting. The stories of Peter of the Forest, who once upon a time disappeared in the Devil's Hole; the enigmatic old woman called "Forest Ursel"; the gigantic "Forest Obelix". He turns out to be a national park ranger, Ursel has modern trekking poles, and Florian, the – maybe, who knows? – reincarnated "Forest Peter", has braces. It's somewhat different than what might be expected of a documentary film: in other words, no let-me-now-explain-the-forest-to-you attitude; instead, a sensorial experience, fantasy included.
Schumann: Our film is also called, in the heading, "The Children's Forest Film". And for the most part, we left out all the explaining, the informing. And banked on the eventful, joyful and playful instead. The film tells how children can have experiences. How they can experience adventure.
Hennings: For director Dieter Schumann, the path leading to this film was at least as convoluted as a lonely forest trail. For a film project with the Greifswald biologist Michael Succow, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, he toured primal forests.
Schumann: We originally intended to make a completely different film. And it was entitled: Europe's Magical Forests. A film for adults.
Hennings: For an entire year, Dieter Schumann and his cameraman Rainer Schulz were underway in the national parks everywhere in Europe.
Schumann: And while getting to know and working together with these national parks and how they work, I began to wonder: Why are they so focused on children and families? And they explained to us that children are the ones who are the most distanced from, and have the least contact with, nature and forests. Because they lose the contact growing up under the heavy influence of the media. During this time, I also got my own grandchildren and thought: You have to make a movie for kids! (...)
Schumann: It's an observant film. This is not about overpowering the viewers, the children, but about their observational powers of perception. How long will they continue to exist in this world in which such an excess of quick and loud stimuli showers down upon children?
Hennings: Dieter Schumann also has his hopes on the parents and grandparents who perhaps say: "This is what it was like during our childhood. Our children and grandchildren should experience it as well – via this children's forest film and, of course, by discovering things together amid the moss and leaves."

Frederik Lang (12.11.2020)

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2019/2020

Production Year

2020

color

color

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Documentary

Genre

Heimatfilm

Topic

Relationship / Family, Home, Friendship, Environment / Ecology / Climate Change

Target Group

Junior film (7-11)

Available Media

DCP, Blu-ray Disc, DVD

Original Version

German (de)

DCP

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Czech (cs)

Note on the Format

DCP sind unverschlüsselt

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar)

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (short), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar)