The forest in film and literature

In the 2010 film "Avatar," which long held the mantle of most successful film of all time, James Cameron tells a story of an ecological disaster triggered by human greed. Mankind has depleted the earth and must conquer new colonies. "Pandora" is the name of the New World, a paradise full of wondrously shining fauna where the Na'vi live in symbiosis with plants and animals.

J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit" are set in Middle-earth, an area full of dense forests. Fangorn forest is the remain of a formerly immense jungle, an enchanted place that can ward off evil invaders. Battles and devastating clearings diminished the forests of Middle-earth to the point that only a few remnants bore witness to a bygone era.

Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" tells about the life of the orpaned boy Mowgli growing up among wolves. Famously filmed by Walt Disney and others, the story is one of the defining works of world literature. The boy is torn between life in the wilderness and life among humans. But because humans disrespect his animal friends, Mowgli returns to the jungle and becomes the leader of the wolf pack.

"Twin Peaks" is a legendary mystery drama TV series by director David Lynch that first aired in 1990. It takes place in a small fictional town in the USA's Pacific Northwest and, among other things, is about the destruction of a wooded paradise as the timbe industry clears the forest — and awakens its demons.

The Japanese animated film "Princess Mononoke" is about environmental protection and the conflict between progress and ecology. It tells the story of a wood-hungry iron factory that gradually destroys a forest that is home to mystical animals. Mononoke was raised there by wolves and tries to save the woodlands that were based on the cedar forests of Yakushima island in southern Japan.

A woman is trapped alone in a hut in the forest, surrounded by a transparent wall of glass. Marlen Haushofer's film adaptation of the 1963 Austrian novel, "The Wall," tells of primeval fears akin to those addressed in German fairy tales. Thrown back on herself in isolation, she has to come to terms with nature.

A child grows up in the forest, far away from civilization. The boy cannot walk upright, cannot speak and cannot write when discovered by a doctor in 1798, takes him in and hopes to give him an education. The story of the boy found in the wild, such as the German Kasper Hauser, has inspired numerous books and films, including this 1969 classic by Francois Truffaut.

Japanese bestselling author Hanya Yanagihara tells the story of Norton Perina, a physician who sets out on an expedition to study an isolated people on a Micronesian island. In the jungle he encounters untouched nature and discovers a species of turtle whose consumption slows down the physical aging process, but not mental deterioration

Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel — forests play a role in more than half of the 160 fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. Whoever entered a forest had to prove themselves by finding their way out. In the late 19th century Romantic period, people regarded forests as an alternative world to civilization.

Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is the protagonist in "Apocalypse Now," a soldier in the Vietnam War in 1969. He and his men head deep into the jungle to put an end to vigilante operations. It's a trip through hell. Director Francis Ford Coppola shows the madness of war as well as the difficulties of surviving in the jungle surrounded by enemies, wild animals and dangerous plants.