Lonely Oaks

For over a decade, environmental activists occupied an ancient forest in western Germany, which the energy company RWE planned to clear. In 2018, the police attempted to take down over 50 tree houses in an operation court later declared illegal. In the course of the evictions, a tragic accident occurred. Steffen Meyn, who was filming the events at the site, fell from a treehouse and died. ‘Lonely Oaks’ blends the footage he left behind with a meta-commentary by activists from Hambach Forest. It explores a wide range of perspectives, often contradictory, as it refuses to fall into reductive binaries or sloganeering, offering a remarkably nuanced approach to knotty, complex political issues, questioning and probing the effectiveness and necessity of direct activism, anarchism, democracy, violence, ultimately asking whether a cause is ever worth dying for. A powerful, provocative documentary that forces us to reckon with our own personal and political commitments.

Co-presented with Goethe-Institut