CARGO Berlin - Timișoara

A documentary truck ride

By Karrenbauer / Kaegi

Berlin, 24 July 2020.
Over 100 trucks roll towards the Brandenburg Gate. Large banners are attached to the tractor units. "Stop price dumping", they say. And: "Save the transport industry".
A price war is raging on Europe's motorways, and it is being fought on the backs of the drivers. Whoever has the cheapest drivers can make the lowest offer and get the contract. For this, logistics companies set up branches in Eastern Europe and then let the trucks be driven in Western Europe. In doing so, the higher minimum wages and social benefits prescribed there are circumvented. By now, Eastern European haulage companies have conquered over 40 percent of the European transport market.
A main recruiting country for cheap drivers is Romania. As an EU member, formalities here are easy to handle and the wage level is low.
 
Timișoara, 8 December 2022.
Despite successful evaluation, Romania's (and Bulgaria's) admission to the Schengen area is rejected. Passport and goods controls at the borders are maintained. At the Nădlac II border crossing with Hungary, trucks are backed up for kilometres. Drivers continue to lose time and money.
 
In CARGO Berlin - Timișoara, 46 spectators sit on the cargo area of a former refrigerated truck converted into a mobile auditorium, which now transports the stories of two Romanian truck drivers instead of pork halves. The two-hour journey is accompanied by a soundtrack which synchronises live with the world passing by outside the glass window.
 
Feature (from minute 44:35 on TVR+ with Romanian subtitles)
 
Concept: Stefan Kaegi
Direction and Script Timişoara: Jörg Karrenbauer
Production Management Rimini Protokoll: Maitén Arns, Jörg Karrenbauer
Production Management Asociația Solidart: Ana Ursu
Dramaturgy: Andrei Ursu
Assistent Director: Christina Baldau
Truck Drivers: N.N.
Sound Artist: Radu Racz
Video Artist: Flavius Marusca
“CARGO Berlin - Timișoara” is produced by Rimini Apparat and Asociația Solidart – Teatrul Basca.
Based on Cargo Sofia-X that was produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Goethe-Institut Sofia in 2006.

Foreign language press

CARGO Berlin – Timișoara
Andreea Oance
03.05.2023 / Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien