In den Gängen

This was an excellent movie about the importance of comradeship and the dignity of work even in a menial job in the modern mechanized and dehumanized work space. The bonding between an steady older man and a young man with a past trying to find his place with the world was very touching. In that, it reminded me of the excellent movie 'Spring Forward' with Ned Beatty and Liev Schreiber.

The physical setting is fascinating. Our guys stock the shelves of some sort of super grocery store where there are endless aisles and the stacks of crates loom 40 feet up in the air. It's like the warehouse at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Arc', but it's just a grocery store.

Minor note -- even when the guys dream of leaving the aisles, it's to go to other isles, like Ibiza. But I suppose that's an accident of English, not something intended by the German filmmakers.

The story is built up well. You are put into context for a while before things get going. Some may consider this "slow", but I liked it. Nice storytelling.

I really liked the photography of the film, it was great art!

Very good actors.

One might think working in a club warehouse stocking & stacking pallets of goods to feed the consumer market would be menial & trivial, but like all things there lies hidden complexity. To some it's a second chance; to other it's a dead end job (literally). Well acted; engaging. Notes: (a.) I liked the Delta Blues' Son House song's lyrics, "a true friend is hard to find."; "Yes, but bear this in mind." (b.) I wonder to what extent jobs be displaced by robotic cashiers, inventory takers, stackers & pullers? (c.) Sadly, for the environment, I didn't see any indication of recycling or repurposing.of anything.

If you can't imagine how to make an impressive film out of the everyday life and work of a supermarket staff, you should watch this film. This is of course not inconsiderably due to the two - as always impressively acting - main actors Franz Rogowski and Sandra Hüller (plus a no less brilliant Peter Kurth), but ultimately the decisive factor is the warmth and sympathy with which the writer/director Thomas Stuber draws his characters under the most adverse circumstances (= the monotonous work in this juggernaut of a supermarket with its endless aisles and towering shelves) treating each other warmly and respectfully and occasionally celebrate the small unauthorized freedoms. The delicate bonds between Hüller and Rogowski are so adorable in all their clumsiness and speechlessness, nothing more is wished for them other than the main prize in the lottery and great luck. I don't give away too much, I think - everything will turn out differently, of course, but you will still be able to dream and it is and remains a wonderfully charming film.

Thanks to Franz Rogowski and Sandra Hueller, I trust in every minute of this movie. How hard is to get up. And what happens when you cannot get up. Zero effects. But leaves the deep memories.