First-time feature director Maren Ade's compelling, sometimes uncomfortable drama evokes the pain of alienation and urban dislocation while etching an incisive portrait of a woman who has little sense of who she is and even less of how others see her. Eager schoolteacher Melanie Proschle (Eva Löbau) leaves her small hometown for the city. Her gifts of homemade schnapps, meant to endear her to her new neighbors, are met with bemused apathy. At school, her students are rowdy, indifferent to her lessons, and beyond her control. But she has nowhere to turn after alienating her fellow teachers by introducing herself as a “breath of fresh air” and bragging about her revolutionary methods. An attempt to make friends with her chic neighbor Tina (Daniela Holtz) backfires when she tries to impose herself on the disinterested woman's life. Unable to reach out to anyone in her new surroundings or admit defeat and return home, Melanie begins to melt down. Löbau's fearless, sensitive portrayal of a woman seemingly unable to get out of her own way as her life implodes is often painful as she evokes a palpable sense of embarrassment at each new humiliation. A documentary-style approach, shot on digital video, adds intimacy to every mortifying encounter. The filmmaker's parents are teachers (the film was shot at their school) and the scenes of unruly students and cliquish teachers add a further touch of verisimilitude to this fascinating character study of someone whose real problem rings with universal truth-she simply, achingly wants to belong.