What Would the Drop Know About That?

The Reichstag in Berlin, the most influential building in Germany, is the subject of this short stylised documentary. But more than the building, the immigrant cleaners working there day after day are the protagonists. As in a genuine ballet, they move around the majestic, rigidly designed building with their yellow garbage carts, floor sweepers and squeegees. They mop the floors of the endless corridors, dust the fashionable lampshades, and clean the countless windows. In the voice-over, the cleaners contemplate their job and the significance of the building. As one man enthusiastically scrubs a text engraved in the floor, he explains that some letters are harder to clean than others. And what the text in fact means, he wouldn't know. His colleague tells us that the Christian Democratic Party is housed on the fifth floor and the Social Democrats are on the fourth, but to him there is no real difference. He probably wouldn't vote, even if he were allowed to. With minimalist piano music as a soundtrack, the camera glides like an elevator along all stories, where cleaner after cleaner focuses on his or her job. Outside, the sky turns pink. Night falls over the metropolis. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)