Grandmother and the Wolf

Lusatia is an ore-rich region in eastern Germany where brown coal has been mined for more than 100 years. These activities have transformed large parts of this once densely forested area into a moonlike landscape covered with brown craters. Despite this, something remarkable has happened: wolves returned to Lusatia in 2000, even though according to official records the last one was killed in 1845. Director Andreas Schnögl interviews local people - a grandmother, a hunter, a shepherd, a tree planter and a puppet maker - about the fundamental changes Lusatia has been subjected to, about the loss of traditions, and about how they each deal with the situation in their own way. We hear stories, songs and sounds from long ago, and archive material shows the growth of mining in the region. The grandmother sings a song for the wolf as she wanders through what's left of the forest. And the wolf - racing across the brown coal fields or watching from behind a tree - weaves its way through this sometimes fairytale-like film. Despite the mythical aura of danger surrounding this animal, its return is welcomed by most locals, who view it as a victory of nature and tradition over the unscrupulous capitalization of resources. In the words of the grandmother, "What man loses, the wolf wins."