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Portugal · 2017
2h 57m
Director Pedro Pinho
Starring José Smith Vargas, Carla Galvão, Njamy Sebastião, Joaquim Bichana Martins
Genre Drama, Music
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When management begins to sell off equipment at a factory that makes elevator parts, the workers become nervous about their job security. As they weigh their options, including a strike and a tongue-in-cheek suggestion of an armed response, the workers are forced to continue showing up at work.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
While the film as a three-hour whole feels unbalanced, a few heart-to-heart conversations between Daniele and Ze cut directly to the core of the material, exploring the uses of fiction and lies in situations like these.
Exploring workers' rights in an age of mechanisation and recession, this isn't always an easy watch. But it's played with spirit, filmed with integrity and is pleasingly full of surprises.
The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby
Admirably choosing empathy for its non-actor, real-life factory worker subjects over the ironies of cinematic representation for the majority of its lengthy runtime, The Nothing Factory still doesn’t seem to offer any real astute observations at the end of the day.
Though the intentions are pure, the combination of social-realist austerity and cinematic exuberance never coheres.
Screen International by Jonathan Romney
It’s very much its own thing, intelligent and inventive if somewhat ragged round the edges
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Worryingly, there is an actual film-maker in the story who appears to be intervening in the action and The Nothing Factory appears to retreat into self-reference when it could be offering concrete ideas on the issue of people keeping their jobs.
Blurring the fiction/documentary lines (it features non-professional actors), it’s spiced with eccentricities.