Finalist
2024
Entry 24-584 | Germany | 2024 | 50’ | Language: English | Subtitles: Estonian
Welcome to the Forest - Mind the Gap
Meie metsad - Lagendikud
Jan Haft presents the natural processes in a forest in which man no longer bends a branch of a tree. If a former timber plantation is left to nature, trees sometimes die in times of climate change. A strange circumstance then always becomes apparent: what was once a relatively monotonous forest first has to be "destroyed" by storms and beetles for biodiversity to explode. A circumstance that has to do with the light that is now available. At the end, the film describes what happens when a new, resilient forest grows. And what consequences this has for nature.
Original title: Unsere Wälder - Mut zur LückeDetails
Director
Jan Haft
Cinematography
Kay Ziesenhenne, Jonas Blaha, Jan Haft, Jonathan Wirth, Alexandra & Steffen Sailer
Editing
Jan Haft
Composer
Dominik Eulberg, Hannes Kretzer
Producer
Melanie Haft
Production Company
nautilusfilm GmbH for doclights GmbH
Contact of presenter / Director
Awards
Best CinematographyIn nature filmmaking, the camera operator plays an essential role: to be the eye of the audience. From the very beginning of the film, we can sense that the camera captures something unique from the soul of the deep forest. For the director and cinematographer of the film, the forest is a playground in which he has been growing up, learning and changing. The film itself is a well-crafted story about the gap in the forests we rarely consider. The film showcases the remarkable transformation of a planted forest into a rich ecosystem through natural and semi-natural disturbances. Life arises from death, and the local destruction of a man-made landscape is therefore not a disaster, but a prerequisite for the rebirth of natural biodiverse forest habitats. Beautiful cinematography, featuring highly professional time-lapses—which are a trademark of Jan Haft’s films—tell a visually stunning yet complex story.
