Everyone is familiar with the metal box: you see it on tractor-trailers, on trains and on ships. But this box is so ordinary that you immediately forget about it once it is out of sight. About 100 million of these boxes are constantly circling the globe. The world has become dependent upon the box – and the box, in return, has changed the world. – This film tells the story of the container box. It shows the influence the container has had on trade, on wars, and on the economy, on housewives, dockworkers and car manufacturers.

Two people play a major role in this story. One of them is a farmer’s son from North Carolina who first built America′s second largest trucking company and then made the dream of his life come true when he packed the products of our world into rectangular boxes. The first protagonist is Malcom McLean, the father of containerization.

The second protagonist is the dockworker Bodo Meyer. In May 1966, he unloaded the very first shipping containers to arrive in Europe – in the seaport of Bremen, Germany.
The standardized metal box – one of the 20th century′s major revolutions – was on its way around the world …

A co-production of Radio Bremen and ARTE.

Funded in part by nordmedia FondsGmbH Niedersachsen and Bremen.