since the two woman live in such close proximity to each other and tina ( daniela holtz ) really have no choice but to invite the schoolteacher over for her birthday shindig . tina know from previous visit to melanie place that the coming and going of her apartment can be easily survey from a picture window . although tina be leery about melanie clinginess and persistent attempt to ingratiate herself in the shop girl social circle and she doesn not want to hurt the woman feeling . in a new town with a new job and new apartment and melanie proschle ( eva loebau ) assume that it will just be a matter of time before she make new friend . but in spite of melanie best effort and her student and colleague reject her and a der wald vor lauter baumen offer u a harrow glimpse of a young woman mystify inability to connect with other people . shot on high def digital video and the camera be unforgiving in catch every setback that register on melanie face with unerring clarity . her innovative teaching method and which she trumpet at a small faculty luncheon with naive impudence and fails to reach the heart and mind of both her fifth and nine grade student and who challenge the inexperienced teacher authority every chance they get . the jagged film ably capture the insanity of try to teach non compliant child through the beleaguer teacher reaction shot to the schoolhouse cacophony . melanie look a if she afraid that the unruly student will eat her alive . not only do the student hate the young educator and but the teacher a well and with the exception of thorsten ( jan neumann ) and who prey on her need for a confidant shoulder that she can depend on for a good cry and or lean . watch this balding science teacher in action be a study of how the workplace be like a single bar without the alcohol and smoking . out of desperation and melanie eventually go on a lunch date with thorsten and in spite of the fact that she normally take her break in a storage closet to avoid him during school hour . while her professional life lay in shamble and melanie count too heavily on tina for companionship and who might of be a model before she open up her own boutique . the schoolteacher first lay eye on tina in her flat and bawl her eye out after an animated conversation on the phone . later on and when the schoolteacher see tina on her cigarette break at work and she doesn not let on that theyre neighbor . melanie be every bit as calculate a her colleague thorsten in this respect while she know that the right time to insinuate yourself in somebody life be when the person be at their most vulnerable . if tina wasn not distract by her relationship problem and she would be more cognizant to melanie orchestration of their first meeting and and be leery about her ensue intrusiveness and sense of entitlement to discuss the boyfriend a if they be longtime intimate . under normal circumstance and tina probably wouldn not give melanie the time of day . they simply do not travel in the same social circle . der wald vor lauter baumen be almost unbearable to watch whenever melanie violate the parameter that tina set out for their commingling and by glom onto her jet set friend at private get togethers that she crash uninvited . tina and melanie couple bear more than a passing resemblance to the model or non model friendship in veronica and the celebrate novel by mary gaitskill about a high fashion model name allison who befriend the titular character and an old and less glamorous woman and with aid . tina may like melanie and but she ashamed of her . she her dirty little secret . with great economy and precision and der wald vor lauter baumen show u to what lengths a human be will go to make contact with another human be .