Jochen and Marion

Jochen (Gottfried John) and his crew of tool makers are under pressure. They’re supposed to have four devices ready in seventeen weeks, and it doesn’t look like they’ll make it. “You are too slow,” says Foreman Kretzschmer (Victor Curlandt). “The calculation was too tight,” says the group. Sure, says the management, but this is why there will be a productivity bonus. Jochen comes up with a suggestion for improvement; he gets a bonus and there’s a big party. But the change has other consequences: management announces that the productivity bonus is cancelled. Jochen and his colleagues will have to come up with a new idea. Also in this episode, Jochen meets Marion (Hanna Schygulla), and Oma (Luise Ullrich) meets Gregor (Werner Finck). (Adapted from notes by The Fassbinder Foundation)