Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job
Produced by Michael Sombetzki Cinematography Matthias Lehmann Initial release May 2001 (France) Budget 90,000 EUR | Narrated by Egon Hoegen Edited by Andrea Stabenow Directors Stefan Prehn, Jörg Wagner Screenplay Stefan Prehn, Jörg Wagner | |
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Directed by Stefan PrehnJörg Wagner Written by Jörg WagnerStefan Prehn Costume design Anja Vesterling, Ute Spangenberg, Patricia Rola Cast Konstantin Graudus, Douglas Welbat, Dieter Dost, Gustav Adolph Artz, Michael Sombetzki Similar Cinema16: World Short Films, Homecoming, The Woman Who Pow, Charlie & Louise – Das dopp, Yugo & Lala | ||
Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job (in German Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag) is a German short film from 2000 about the first day of Klaus' work as a forklift driver. The film is a parody of work safety films from the 1980s.
Contents
The film was written and directed by Stefan Prehn and Jörg Wagner. Konstantin Graudus plays the role of Klaus, and Egon Hoegen is the narrator. It adds to the air of authenticity that the narrator's voice is well known from road safety films, such as "Der 7. Sinn".
The film quickly became famous, much thanks to its splatter film violence, which fans regard as comical due to its extreme and obviously fake nature. The film received several awards and was made available on DVD by Anolis Entertainment in 2003, dubbed in English, French and Spanish.
Plot
The film is presented as a safety instruction video for forklift truck drivers and shows the first day of work for newly qualified forklift truck driver Klaus. The film highlights, in a gory manner, the dangers of unsafe operation of machinery. As the film progresses the injuries/deaths become more brutal, beginning with things like a man falling from the fork lift after he was lifted improperly, and closing with the most violent: ending in a stray chainsaw being driven around by a severed arm on the floor, reaching and ripping through a man who had already been cut in half waist-down due to Klaus' previous accident. A gory POV shot of the chainsaw chopping through the man is shown. The film ends as Klaus is decapitated by the chainsaw and two men are left impaled onto the forklift prongs, screaming. The forklift drives off into the sunset as the impaled men continue to scream with the chainsaw racing after them. End theme "Happyland" was written by French composer Laurent Lombard.
Context
Although the film is not officially part of the German training and education system for forklift trucks, it is frequently shown by instructors to lighten the mood.
Awards
The film has won many awards, including:
