When Christian starts his new job in a gigantic retail warehouse, he enters a world of its own. Mostly working at night in the long dimly lit aisles flanked by tall shelves he is trained by the older Bruno. The former lorry driver slowly introduces him to the mastery of the fork lift and how to shift heavy loads at dangerous heights. Christian observes and learns quickly. There is a lot more to this seemingly monotonous job than one would expect, especially once Marion from the confectionary department takes an interest in him. They start meeting at the coffee machine…
Thomas Stuber’s quiet and tender film manages to transform an ordinary place of work into an entire universe with its own rules and relations, sounds and choreographies. It laconically describes a microcosms of fellow workers that look out for each other and respect each other’s stories and secrets. Based on a short story and a script by Clemens Meyer, who, like Thomas Stuber, was born in the GDR, the film captures a community that has been left behind but has maintained a sense of solidarity and the capacity to, day after day, fill their lives with some meaning.
Germany 2018, colour, 120 minutes, with English subtitles.
Directed by Thomas Stuber. Script by Clemens Meyer. With Franz Rogowski, Sandra Hüller, Peter Kurth, Andreas Leupold, Michael Specht, Ramona Kunze-Libnow, Henning Peker, Steffen Scheumann
