Losers and Winners

Several German engineers try to supervise the handover of an ultramodern but economically uncompetitive Dortmund coke plant to a Chinese company. But the assimilation of technologies and production processes proceeds in a manner that is completely different to what the Germans imagined. For the Chinese, revenues are the most important thing, while the environment and workers' welfare come last on their list of priorities. The filmmaking duo Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken (whose Herr Schmidt and Herr Friedrich was shown in 2002 at One World Festival) filmed the handover of the factory from the first day to the last. Initially, the filmmakers listen mainly to frustrated German specialists, but later they also get among the Chinese workers and find out about the conditions they have to work under and how they are motivated. In television reports, the Chinese president speaks to astronauts using language that sounds as though he were sending them to battle for the honour of their country. and he similarly appeals to the exhausted workers and their manager by invoking the military philosophy of returning home with plunder and leaving a scorched land behind.