94 minSeason 1 • Episode 5
LatestWith the news the factory is relocating, Jochen and Marion ask if they can switch apartments with Kathe and Wolf, to be closer to their respective jobs. And with this new inconvenience, the workers come up with a list of demands, including the seemingly impractical proposal that they arrange their own schedule rather than it being dictated by the bosses.
Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (German: Acht Stunden sind kein Tag) is a West German television drama miniseries written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk, it broadcast in five episodes between 1972 and 1973. In Cologne, West Germany, young toolmaker Jochen's world is explored, including those around him: the woman he loves, his eccentric family, and his fellow workers, with whom he bands together to improve conditions on the factory floor.
Writing
Fassbinder's rare tender streak—revolutionary without cynicism.
Acting
Gottfried John's gentle giant energy anchors everything.
Production
Cologne kitchens and factory floors shot like sacred spaces.
Creator
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Gottfried John
Jochen Epp
Wolfried Lier
Wolf Epp
Irm Hermann
Irmgard Erlkönig
Werner Finck
Gregor Mack
Hanna Schygulla
Marion Andreas
Wolfgang Schenck
Franz Miltenberger
Rudolf Waldemar Brem
Rolf Schwein
Grigorios Karipidis
Guiseppe Giuliano
Hans Hirschmüller
Jürgen Graf
Luise Ullrich
Oma Krüger
Karl Scheydt
Arbeiter Peter
Herb Andress
Rüdiger
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Commissioned by state television, Fassbinder smuggled Marxist class analysis into prime-time family drama—only possible in 1972 West Germany's brief progressive window.
Fassbinder shot this simultaneously with 'The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant'—the same year he made his bleakest and warmest works, apparently just to flex.
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