In the Aisles (2018) by Thomas Stuber is the ultimate warehouse-worker feature film. There has never been so much 'workplace' featured in a movie, set in a wholesale market, with so much insight into learning the ropes of an unskilled job. On top of that, romance.

Back in 2019, I took a short break and started a traineeship as an unskilled worker in a wholesale plant nursery, suddenly the feelings came flooding back. Those that you only go through in a new, unfamiliar job during the first days and weeks.

In the German feature film “In den Gängen” (In the Aisles, 2018), this special emotional world of those starting out in unskilled jobs can relive it, if one so chooses. Christian, the protagonist of the film, played outstandingly by the ‘German Joaquin Phoenix’, Franz Rogowski, has it literally written all over his face as he starts his new job in the wholesale market: Curiosity, dread, uncertainty, excitement, fear, enthusiasm, desire, and frustration. For this he was rightly awarded with the German Film Award for Best Leading Actor in 2019.

It is an immersion into a new microcosm with its own linguistic world. “Fetch me the CC!” was what I was told on my very first day, during which I had a constant question mark lingering on my forehead. CC stood for “Container Centralen” and it was a trolley with adjustable shelves that was mainly used in the plant business. For your information: 80% of the work in a wholesale nursery is warehouse work.

Ins Schwitzen bringt Christian nicht das CC, sondern das noch fehlende Feingefühl bei der Handhabung der „Ameise“ (ein Elektro-Hubwagen, benannt nach dem Hersteller).  Doch der ist für ihn noch Tabu. ‚Stapler-Konflikte‘, der Kampf, wer die Stapler fahren darf, gehören zum Alltag in den Gängen des Großmarkts.

The film actually takes place almost exclusively within the wholesale market (i.e. in the warehouse, office, lounge, the loading ramp, and in the car park) and devotes a lot of time to the realistic depiction of Christian’s instruction; especially by his older colleague Bruno, played by Peter Kurth (known as the chief inspector in “Babylon Berlin”).

Only the theory-training for the forklift licence feels scripted but rewards the spectator with a giggle. Completely intimidated young men in a class situation find themselves exposed to the pedagogically questionable gory joke of the trainer and have to endure an instructional film with a double amputation. The take away: Disregarding the rules ends in a torrent of blood.

Das Verbot am Stapler mitzufahren ist so eine Vorschrift, erfahren wir vom Trainer. Nur um dann in der nächsten Szene zu erleben, wie Christian Marion (Sandra Hüller, die deutsche Cate Blanchett) am Stapler kutschiert. Willkommen zurück in der Arbeitswirklichkeit. Arbeiter haben eben stets auch ihre eigene Interpretation von Regeln und machen ihre eigenen Gesetze.  Die gemeinsame Staplerfahrt von Christian und Marion ist dann auch so etwas wie der Höhepunkt der zarten Romanze zwischen den beiden, natürlich das eigentliche Thema des Films.

Love stories that take place almost exclusively in the workplace are probably the exception rather than the rule in the cinema despite being the bread and butter of real workplaces. Stuber’s film shows impressively that this can have its charm too and at the same time be suitable as a milieu to study.