Staplerfahrer Klaus
| Staplerfahrer Klaus | |
 | |
| Medium | Video |
|---|---|
| Origin | Germany |
Meet Klaus, the world's most dangerous—and legendary—fictional forklift operator. Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag (Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day on the Job) is a cult-classic German short film released in 2000. While it starts as a seemingly mundane health and safety training video from the 1980s, it quickly descends into a hilariously over-the-top "splatter" parody.
The video follows Klaus on his first day of work. After receiving his license, he proceeds to accidentally maim and kill his coworkers in increasingly absurd and gory ways due to gross negligence.
It has won numerous awards, including the German Film Critics Award for Best Short Film. It is so convincing that it has occasionally been mistaken for a real training video, though it is now widely used by safety instructors as "light relief" during actual certification courses.
Directed by Stefan Prehn and Jörg Wagner, the film is celebrated for its "Sam Raimi-esque" escalation of violence and its mastery of the deadpan parody genre.
History
During filming at a high-bay warehouse in Buchholz in der Nordheide, the warehouse owners were initially told it was a legitimate training video; even the lead actor, Konstantin Graudus, was reportedly kept in the dark about the film's gore-filled direction early on.
To achieve its deadpan tone, the filmmakers hired Egon Hoegen, the most famous voice of real German traffic safety programs like Der 7. Sinn, to provide the dry narration.
The film had a budget of roughly €90,000.
Online presence
Shortly after its release, it became a festival darling, winning the German Film Critics Award for Best Short Film in 2002 and numerous prizes at international horror and fantasy festivals.
In the early 2000s, the film spread globally through LAN parties and early viral sites like Boing Boing and Reddit.
It has later become regularly posted within communities on social media platforms like Facebook because of its strong cult status among forklift meme enthusiasts.
Although the organization in the film (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Flurförderzeuge) is fictional, the movie is frequently shown by real-world safety instructors as "light relief" to keep students engaged during certification exams.
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