The Nothing Factory

2017 film

  • 25 May 2017 (2017-05-25) (Cannes)
  • 21 September 2017 (2017-09-21) (Portugal)
Running time
176 minutes[1]CountryPortugalLanguagePortuguese

The Nothing Factory (Portuguese: 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]

Plot

"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][10] after being taken over by the Otis Elevator Company in 1970.[11][12] It is inspired in part by De Nietsfabriek, a 1997 Dutch play by playwright and poet Judith Herzberg.[13][14]

Production

The Nothing Factory was shot with 16 mm film and grainy in appearance.[15][16] A Portuguese collective of filmmakers who share all credits, Terratreme, produced this work, and all of Pinho's prior works.[17]

Cast

  • Carla Galvão
  • Dinis Gomes
  • Américo Silva
  • José Smith Vargas

Screening

Before The Nothing Factory was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the film was shown at various international film festivals, among which was Calgary,[18] Pune,[19] Thessaloniki[20] and BFI London Film Festival.[21]

Reception

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.[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[23]

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".[24] 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".[10] Diego Semerene of Slant Magazine, gave the film 2 out of 4 and called it "cerebral".[25] Screen Daily said, "The film gets more unpredictable as it goes along...an ensemble piece with something of a community theatre feel"[13] 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."[14] Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook said, "The Nothing Factory is a prime example of the cinema of small nations"[26]

Accolades

2018 Sophia Awards (pt) for Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay.[27]

References

  1. ^ "The Nothing Factory". Portugal Film - Portuguese Film Agency.
  2. ^ Romney, Jonathan (25 May 2017). "'The Nothing Factory': Cannes Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Fortnight 2017: The 49th Directors' Fortnight Selection". Directors' Fortnight. French Directors Guild. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  4. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (19 April 2016). "Cannes: Juliette Binoche-Gerard Depardieu Drama to Kick Off Directors Fortnight". Variety.
  5. ^ "The Nothing Factory". International Film Festival Rotterdam. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  6. ^ Hopewell, John (31 May 2017). "Cannes Critics Prize 'BPM', 'Closeness', 'Nothing Factory'". Variety.
  7. ^ "The Nothing Factory / A Fábrica de nada". European Film Awards. 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Fateleva - Indústria de Elevadores S.A. - Em Liquidação". Racius. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  9. ^ "fortis elevadores". vLex (in Portuguese). Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  10. ^ a b Bradshaw, Peter (26 January 2018). "The Nothing Factory review – workers fight asset strippers in enigmatic epic". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  11. ^ Lardín, Rubén (12 May 2018). ""La fábrica de nada": Nosotros somos el capitalismo". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Pedro Pinho, à propos de "A Fábrica de Nada"". Zibeline (in French). 12 December 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b Romney, Jonathan (25 May 2017). "'The Nothing Factory': Cannes Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  14. ^ a b Hoeij, Boyd van (31 May 2017). "'The Nothing Factory' ('A Fabrica de nada'): Film Review - Cannes 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  15. ^ "The Nothing Factory". Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  16. ^ Ahmed, Nafees (13 September 2017). "The Nothing Factory [2017]: 'TIFF' Review". High On Films. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  17. ^ Cumming, Jesse (5 March 2018). "PEDRO PINHO". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  18. ^ "The Nothing Factory". Calgary International Film Festival. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  19. ^ "The Nothing Factory". Pune International Film Festival. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  20. ^ "The Nothing Factory". Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  21. ^ "The Nothing Factory". BFI London Film Festival. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  22. ^ "The Nothing Factory (A Fábrica de Nada) (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  23. ^ "The Nothing Factory Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  24. ^ Kiang, Jessica (15 July 2017). "Karlovy Vary Film Review: 'The Nothing Factory'". Variety.
  25. ^ Semerene, Diego (28 March 2018). "Review: The Nothing Factory". Slant Magazine.
  26. ^ Liz, Mariana (1 January 2020). "Thinking Europe from the margins and through marginal cinema: The case of The Nothing Factory (Pinho, 2017)". Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook. 18 (1): 131–144. doi:10.1386/nl_00018_1. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  27. ^ "Vencedores dos Prémios Sophia 2018". Academia Portuguesa de Cinema (in Portuguese). Retrieved 16 March 2022.

External links

  • The Nothing Factory at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • "The Nothing Factory". Portugal Film - Portuguese Film Agency.