| The Nothing Factory | |
| Director: | Pedro Pinho |
| Producer: | Joao Matos Leonor Noivo Luisa Homem Pedro Pinho Susana Nobre Tiago Hespanha |
| Starring: | Carla Galvão |
| Music: | Jose Smith Vargas Pedro Rodrigues |
| Cinematography: | Vasco Viana |
| Editing: | Claudia Oliveira Edgar Feldman Luisa Homem |
| Distributor: | Memento |
| Runtime: | 176 minutes[1] |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Language: | Portuguese |
The Nothing Factory (pt|'''A Fábrica de Nada''') is a 2017 Portuguese drama film directed by Pedro Pinho, whose prior works were documentaries.[2] It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival[3] [4] and the Bright Future section at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[5] At Cannes it won the FIPRESCI Prize.[6]
"One night, a group of workers realizes that their administration has organized the stealing of machines from their factory. They soon understand that this is the first signal of a massive layoff. Most of them refuse to co-operate during the individual negotiations and they start to occupy their workplace...."[7]
The film is inspired in part by the Portuguese Fataleva (Fortis Elevadores Ltda) factory workers who ran it collectively from 1975 to 2016,[8] [9] after being taken over by the Otis Elevator Company in 1970.[10] [11] It is inspired in part by De Nietsfabriek, a 1997 Dutch play by playwright and poet Judith Herzberg.
The Nothing Factory was shot with 16 mm film and grainy in appearance.[12] [13] A Portuguese collective of filmmakers who share all credits, Terratreme, produced this work, and all of Pinho's prior works.[14]
Before The Nothing Factory was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the film was shown at various international film festivals, among which was Calgary,[15] Pune,[16] Thessaloniki[17] and BFI London Film Festival.[18]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81%, based on 26 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10.[19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[20]
Jessica Kiang of Variety, while attending its screening at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, called The Nothing Factory "a shaggily eccentric but overlong and undisciplined drama".[21] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, said that the film is "a sprawling, intriguing, but finally exhausting film", "evasive and self-deconstructing", adding as well that an "enigmatic story is acted with sincerity and force".[22] Diego Semerene of Slant Magazine, gave the film 2 out of 4 and called it "cerebral".[23] Screen Daily said, "The film gets more unpredictable as it goes along...an ensemble piece with something of a community theatre feel"[24] The Hollywood Reporter said, "The straightforward, nonfiction-like material is laced with short montage sequences, set to rock music, in which capitalism and the current state of the Old Continent are discussed in voiceover."[25] Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook said, "The Nothing Factory is a prime example of the cinema of small nations"[26]
2018 Sophia Awards (pt) for Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay.[27]
‘TIFF’ Review ]
. High On Films . 16 March 2022 . en-us . 13 September 2017.