WADANS WELT

“It doesn’t matter to us who buys us. The main thing is that I can go in there tomorrow at 6am.” For the welders who this film follows through the turmoil of ‘their’ shipyard going bankrupt, there is only one thing that is harder than work and that is to lose it. For them it is like a religious ritual when, after the insolvency, they are allowed to finally put on their protective suits of armour once again and kneel back down over their giant pieces of work. Their wages have fallen, but what the hell! A German legend says that even the God Wadan, after whom the shipyard is named, is powerless against fate. And like fate, our heroes accept that the value of their effort is not determined by quality but by stock prices and the social standards in emerging markets. Stoic and full of helpless loyalty, they weld their gigantic ship components in cramped vaults under the screeching of giant cranes. In powerful images we can see the sparks flying, both literally and figuratively.