The Hidden Life of Trees

The Hidden Life of Trees

Are trees able to talk? Do they have a memory and a social life? The forester and bestselling author Peter Wohlleben gets to the bottom of these questions and opens our eyes to the hidden world of the woods.

When Peter Wohlleben published his book “The Hidden Life of Trees” in 2015, he stormed all the bestseller charts overnight: no-one had ever written about the German woods like the forester from the parish of Wershofen before. Wohlleben tells us in an entertaining and enlightening fashion about the solidarity and cohesion of the trees and strikes a chord with his ever-growing community of readers: he brings us closer to these astounding living entities in guided tours of the woods and readings. Wohlleben travels to Sweden to see the oldest tree in the world; he visits businesses in Vancouver that are looking for a new approach to how to treat the woods; he sides with the demonstrators in the Hambacher Forst. Because he knows that we humans can only survive if the woods are healthy – and that the eleventh hour is already upon us…

The whole world is talking about the environment, but frequently fails to listen to nature itself. One man has made it his mission to change this and has promptly reached millions of people. In his non-fiction bestseller “The Hidden Life of Trees”, which has been published in over 40 countries and often appeared in the Top Ten listings, Peter Wohlleben opens our eyes to the hidden world of the forest and the "Wood Wide Web". Director Jörg Adolph ("Parents' School") combines the exciting portrait of a man who understands the language of trees with breathtaking nature footage from the world of forests to create a documentary which is just as entertaining as it is fascinating.

– Press Clippings –

"Some of the images in the film are so perfect they seem like they’re CGI. Adolph brilliantly uses different effects to accent certain points, switching between time-lapse and slow-motion. The camera work is spectacular, focusing on tiny creatures that we wouldn’t see otherwise."
HollywoodInsider

"What the film successfully imparts is not so much scientific certainty as an affecting sense of curiosity and reverence"
The New York Times

"Moments are punctuated with visions of majesty and breathtaking beauty, including some time-lapse photography that gives us a glimpse of what it is like to live in tree-time."
Roger Ebert

“Extremely exciting, instructive, entertaining documentary. Here you can be amazed, seriously thought and be happy.”
Bild

"Director Jörg Adolph's documentary succeeds in conveying the joy and amazement about it on a journey through the world of nature. At times it is reminiscent of the motivating documentaries such as Erwin Wagenhofer's “But beautiful”. In addition, the sensational shots by Jan Haft amaze. And in the spirit of the non-fiction author Peter Wohlleben, there is a positive outlook. Because for him one thing is certain: "The forest is coming back". Of course, he remarks soberly: "It would only be nice if we were still there".
Programmkino

“Adolph's non-fiction documentary seeks the harmony between personal portraits, spectacular nature shots and political statements and thus walks a little on the trail of committed documentaries like Erwin Wagenhofer's "WE FEED THE WORLD"”.
epd-film

„Haft's forest pictures are astonishing. At night the camera looks reverently into the canopy of the trees and a star-twinkling sky; it hovers over forests that are sometimes green, sometimes colorful; and immerse yourself in the fascinating play of light in a summer deciduous forest.“
Süddeutsche Zeitung