Guth Gafa Documentary Festival 2008

Losers and Winners
Germany, 2006, 96 min
Directors: Ulrike Franke, Michael Loeken

Sat 17th • Óstán Loch Altan • 4:30pm

For one and a half years, film-makers Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken watch as a gigantic industrial site is dismantled, documenting the stories accompanying its disappearance: how the coke workers in the industrial Ruhr region of Germany experience the arrival and working methods of Chinese workers, their feelings upon seeing their pride in their work vanish, along with what was the most modern coke factory in the world, but also the strain and conflicts the Chinese arrivals face during their 60-hour work week far away from home and family, caught between euphoria and doubts about their future. Two worlds collide. But who is the winner and who is the loser when an ‘economic miracle’ that makes it possible for workers to leave their country of origin, collides with a whole region of Germany experiencing the impact of globalization first-hand?