The Nothing Factory

The Nothing Factory
Film poster
Directed by	Pedro Pinho
Written by	Pedro Pinho
Produced by	Joao Matos Leonor Noivo Luisa Homem Pedro Pinho Susana Nobre Tiago Hespanha
Starring	Carla Galvão
Cinematography	Vasco Viana
Edited by	Claudia Oliveira Edgar Feldman Luisa Homem
Music by	Jose Smith Vargas Pedro Rodrigues
Distributed by	Memento
Release dates	25 May 2017 (2017-05-25) (Cannes) 21 September 2017 (2017-09-21) (Portugal)
Running time	176 minutes[1]
Country	Portugal
Language	Portuguese

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. 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. Romney, Jonathan (25 May 2017). "'The Nothing Factory': Cannes Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
14. 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
• "The Nothing Factory". Portugal Film - Portuguese Film Agency.