DER WALDMACHER / THE FOREST MAKER

The Forest Maker is the portrait of a remarkable man whose life’s work was honored with the so-called alternative Nobel. Tony Rinaudo has found a way to grow trees in the most barren areas by activating the tree stumps and roots still alive as an “underground forest“ for decades and thereby secures the livelihood of thousands of farmers in Africa. His method “Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration“ (FMNR) restores not only soil but dignity and hope. The Chief of all Farmers, as he is affectionately known today in many villages, has had to fight an uphill battle to gain acceptance for his ideas. In film Volker Schlöndorff follows Tony Rinaudo to different African countries to witness the effect FMNR and repeatedly encounters issues that also concern us in Europe - migration, climate change…

VOLKER SCHLÖNDORFF

Volker Schlöndorff was born 1939 in Wiesbaden. In 1956 he traveled to France as part of a student exchange and remained in France where he received his Baccalauréat. In Paris he studied law and he met Louis Malle. He also worked as an assistant for Ludwig Berger, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. 1963-1964 he wrote his first screenplay Der Junge Törless for which he received a scholarship that enabled him to realize the project. The film won several awards and is considered the first international success of the new German film. In 1969, Schlöndorff founded production company Hallelujah-Film GmbH. In 1975, Schlöndorff co-directed with Margarethe von Trotta the film The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum. His breakthrough on the world stage comes with the film adaptation of Günter Grass’s novel “Tin Drum”. Film The Tin Drum (1979) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The Forest Maker (2022) is Schlöndorff’s documentary debut.

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This film is a light of hope.

Martin Blaney, Screendaily