HUT IN THE WOODS

Directed by Hans WEINGARTNER

The Edukators

Synopsis

After his release from psychiatry, MARTIN is spit out by society: branded as mentally ill, he ends up on the streets. The young Ukrainian boy VIKTOR counts as a nuisance to everyone and is set to go to an orphanage after the death of his mother. After finding each other, however, they escape the city and build a hut in the woods to establish their own home within nature. Their daily struggle for survival creates a strong bond between the two and gives their life a new meaning. Martin gets to know young LENA and encourages her to abandon her non-free life as well.

But just as they seem to have found a kind of happiness, the machine strikes back: the hut is destroyed and Martin imprisoned. His PSYCHIATRIST tells him that Viktor is a just a  product of his mind, his inner child. Martin refuses to believe that and starts to fight. He breaks free from prison and takes the gun from a policeman. His goal is clear: he must find Viktor and prove that the boy exists. That’s the only way to make his dream come true: escape to Portugal together with Lena, and build a new hut in the woods there.

Germany /// German /// Drama /// 109’

CAST Peter SCHNEIDER, Timur MASSOLD /// CO-DIRECTOR Cuneyt KAYA /// CAMERA Henner BESUCH /// PRODUCTION COMPANY KAHUUNA FILMS GMBH /// PRODUCERS Hans WEINGARTNER, Jonas DORNBACH ///

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The film seems to touch people on a very deep emotional level. It deals with issues that many people in modern society seem to be able to relate to. What am I gonna do if can’t take the pressure any more, the pressure of the daily rat race of global economy? What if my nervous system gets overloaded? Can I just leave the city, and live in the forest, in a hut? Could friendship save me? If I found no friend, could I invent one? What should this friend be like? What is my core as a human being? Where do I come from? Can the person I was in the past help me to find out? Can my «inner child» guide me, help me out? Is it really possible to pull oneself out of the swamp of a broken soul?

Martin is on a quest for inner peace. Like most of us. He finds his peace in the woods. With the help of a Ukrainian orphan boy, he builds a hut and decides to live there. He contact with nature, he rediscovers his inner strength. Society can no longer push him around.
The friendship between Martin and Victor is the center of the movie.  Their friendship transport fundamental human values: empathy, helping each other, respecting each other, caring for each other, stepping out of one’s ego. In the beginning of the film, Martin feels empty, has no will to live. It is through helping the boy, that he finds new meaning in his life.  At the end of the movie, he starts to pass on this meaning to other people. Changing the world starts with changing one other person.

In our capitalistic society, we have lost these human values. But now, after the crisis, I have the strong feeling that many people want to have them back. I think that is why so many people react so strongly to the film. My earlier films were political on the outside; this one is political on the inside.