The fight to save Germany's Hambach Forest from clearance for a vast mine expansion has become one of the most iconic environmental struggles in recent history. Amidst this conflict, as police clear out a protest camp in the forest, a tragedy unfolds: a young filmmaker, who spent years chronicling the activists' endeavours, meets a mysterious death. His footage, which makes up the documentary Lonely Oaks plunges viewers into the heart of the turmoil, among the treetops that house a network of the protesters' hidden sanctuaries. The film's dynamic, vertigo-inducing aerial shots mirror the dizzying moral heights the young filmmaker's questions reach: What are we prepared to forfeit in the fight for our convictions? And in such a battle, can the idea of an impartial observer truly exist? 

Michał Matuszewski