Klaus has just passed his driving test for forklifts. But his first day on the job turns out to be the real challenge. Cruel but informative accidents happen. Only few survive the blood shed. A hommage to industrial safety educational films. A parody on a safety instruction video for forklift drivers follows young Klaus as he begins his first day on the job as a qualified forklift truck driver. The film spoofs the original genre very effectively, notably through employing the best-known German narrator of instructional video clips on traffic safety for the voice-over. Well, on one hand it's kind of sad that this has to be the closest thing to a cult movie us Germans have produced during the last decades, but then again, it *is* funny as hell and raises more attention about the dangers of fork-lifts then all the Jaws-movie combined ever did about the dangers of shark-bites.<br/><br/>Which is a good thing, I guess, since fork lifters are gruesome killing-machines disguised as everyday tools - especially the titular fork lifter shown in this film. Who would have thought?<br/><br/>Another interesting trivia about this movie is the narrator, Egon Hoegen: For decades, this guy narrated the educational TV-show "Der siebte Sinn" ("The seventh sense") about the safety and regulations of everyday public driving. So, most Germans are familiar with his distinct voice, which makes his dry remarks after each brutal accident even more hilarious. This is not the first time, Hoegen used his distinct voice for the sake of comedy; he also narrated the propaganda-pieces in the German dub of "Starship Troopers", giving them an even crazier, authoritative feel.<br/><br/>Given it's short length (about 10 minutes, including end credits), I really don't see a reason why you shouldn't give this film a chance. Maybe it will even receive a fan-dub one day, so English-speaking audiences will also benefit from the insightful informations provided here.<br/><br/>I guess you can watch it online somewhere, but there once also was a really, really nice DVD of this movie, which compensated the relative short length of the main feature by a sheer abundance of bonus-features, easter eggs and background-information. And it was cheap as hell! Try to get that one! The best way to describe this 15-year-old short film is maybe as an educational slasher movie. We follow Klaus, a new recruit in the profession of forklift driving while a narrator explains us what to pay attention to in this particular field. It all starts off pretty harmless as one colleague manages to get out of the way in time before another falls of Klaus's forklift truck. And in the next minutes, it gets really bloody and people are severed everywhere you could think of. Even if it runs only for 10 minutes, I found this film slightly repetitive near the end already. The filmmaker team Prehn and Wagner did not really have a great career after this one here even if it has become a bit of a cult movie and won several awards. The funniest thing for me in this mockumentary was maybe the acting from the supporting players, i.e. the victims. So bad it was funny. Intendedly over-the-top probably. Actually, the actor who plays Klaus is enjoying a prolific career and has been in a whole lot of movies before and after this short one here. Most of these are hopefully better than Klaus' first day at work. Not recommended.
Darvyny replied
295 weeks ago