AllMovie

This documentary focuses on the longshoremen who load and unload ships on the Duisburg docks in North Rhine-Westphalia, men whose grueling work testifies to the fact that it is one of the busiest inland ports in western Germany. The men are interviewed about their jobs -- one such worker kept track of the tonnage that went through the docks on his work shift, a record that went back to 1953 -- and others talk about injuries sustained on the job and the types of cargo they have had to handle over time. Through it all, the men convey their worries over job security as their place on the docks and the general decline in the economics of the Ruhr industrial valley are intimately connected.