Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job

Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job
Konstantin Graudus as Klaus
Directed by	Stefan Prehn Jörg Wagner
Produced by	Michael Sombetzki
Written by	Jörg Wagner Stefan Prehn
Narrated by	Egon Hoegen
Cinematography	Matthias Lehmann
Editing by	Andrea Stabenow
Running time	9 min
Country	Germany
Language	German
Budget	€90,000

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.

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.

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.^{[citation needed]} 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 ending with the most violent: a stray chainsaw that had been on when the arm using it was cut off drives itself around before reaching a man who has already been cut in half and hit on the head by an emergency warning bell (which has fallen off the wall due to its overuse from previous accidents Klaus is involved in), and it is stopped by a hammer. As it cuts through the hammer's handle, the man stares at the example of what the saw is about to do to him. Finally the saw breaks the hammer and drives into the man, and we see a POV shot of his guts being chopped up. The film ends after Klaus is killed by decapitation and two men are left stuck to the fork 'prongs' screaming. The truck drives off into the sunset as the men continue to scream.

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 up the mood.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

The film has won many awards, including:

• The Canal+ International Award for Best Short Film at the Cinema Jove Festival Internacional de Cine València in 2001
• The Jury Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival in 2001
• The Audience Award for Short Film and the Special Prize of the European Broadcasters Jury for Best Original Idea at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in 2002
• The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Award at the Day of the German Short Film awards in 2002
• The German Film Critics Award for Best Short Film at the German Film Critics Association Awards in 2002
• The Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2003 (where it also won 3rd place in the Best Short Film category

External links

• Official Site
• Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag at the Internet Movie Database
• Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job at AllRovi