Forst

Forst is a portrayal. The documentary tells about a forest in the middle of Europe far from the urban world and from civilisation which is home to a peculiar community of the banished. It is a world for the stranded. A diffuse system that still has total control makes sure that this world doesn´t show itself, that it doesn´t pop up in our reality and become a disturbance. In Forst the banished proclaim their own truth and tell the story of their empowerment. They slowly recall their identity as political refugees and start to make plans for their escape...

Forst is disturbing and leaves open hundreds of questions: it is ambiguous-dubious, mythic-monolithic, obscure and anti-enlightening… Forst doesn´t seem to want to negotiate or discuss; it is neither self-reflexive nor self-critical.The spectator won´t find indications of authenticity, but is left with an un-pleasant feeling
of helplessness and the urge to contradict… There is something in the film that provokes doubt – about the monumental truth the film suggests on the one hand, and about the truth the specator claims for himself or herself on the other hand. In the worst case Forst compels the spectator into an indignant position of defense, in the best case it initiates productive self-doubt…

Forst is an un-documentary – and thereby an utopia: Forst documents a struggle at a hardened front, the struggle for reality. The view of the narrators stands facing the one of the spectator provokingly, bravingly and overbearingly….
(Amon Brandt / Translation: Barbara Zorman)

www.forstfilm.com

Forst-Reader - Texts about the Film (PDF)