DIE MAßNAHME
Director: Maik Bialk
Documentary | D | 2008/2009
60 min | Stereo
43rd Hof International Film Festival
2009
It sounds like a modern fairy tale: in a small village in the middle of nowhere a job wonder is achieved. Overnight, unemployment almost disappears and the people have a new mission. The magic word of the employment office and its manager Rainer Bomba is: Work for everyone! – just like in the GDR. Instead of waiting for the upswing, all the unemployed are to become “citizen workers.” A tragicomic pilot project which promises to make unemployment a thing of the past and to give people new hope in this time of crisis.
For some, the project is their saving grace and the chance at a new life. For others, however, it’s the opportunity for a big career. This search for personal happiness brings some hope and others despair. The film recounts the individual meaning of work in a person’s life. What must a job be like in order to also allow for personal dignity? And what significance can be found in sorting stones – from one pile to another? In times when politicians like to talk about full employment, a vision of the future as it is in this small village in the middle of nowhere – or at least according to the strategists of the employment office.