Get Lucky – Off to Germany!

(24 September 2014) Marta Pérez Rey has a dream. The young nurse from Vigo wants to start working in her trained profession at last. IT expert Dimo Urumov from Plovdiv has also long searched for a job in his home country, just like actor Mara Vlachaki from Athens and engineer Paulo Rodrigues from Lisbon, who hopes to find a job as soon as possible in Germany. Paulo was an executive at VW in Lisbon until 2013 when the crisis hit and cost him his job.

The documentary Get Lucky – Young, Skilled, Enterprising was produced by Deutsche Welle TV in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut. A number of film crews accompany the four job seekers from Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and Portugal on their way to Germany and observe their first steps in a new life. In the film, the story of Paulo Rodrigues from Portugal is told by Maren Niemeyer. Rodrigues decided to learn German at the Goethe-Institut, where he met the filmmaker and contributor.

Like many other academics and skilled workers from Southern and Eastern Europe, the four protagonists have few prospects of finding work in their home countries. As a result, hundreds of thousands have already come to Germany, where the employment rate is at a record high while the demand for skilled workers is increasing.

Get Lucky – Young, Skilled, Enterprising will first be broadcasted on 25 September. Later, the entire documentary can also be seen online at www.dw.de.