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IMDbPro

The Nothing Factory

Original title: A Fábrica de Nada
  • 20172017
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 2h 57m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
877
YOUR RATING
José Smith Vargas and Hermínio Amaro in The Nothing Factory (2017)
  • Drama
  • Musical
One night, a group of workers discover their factory is being dismantled by the same administration that runs it. Quickly, the labourers organize themselves in order to occupy the plant.One night, a group of workers discover their factory is being dismantled by the same administration that runs it. Quickly, the labourers organize themselves in order to occupy the plant.One night, a group of workers discover their factory is being dismantled by the same administration that runs it. Quickly, the labourers organize themselves in order to occupy the plant.
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
877
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Pedro Pinho
  • Writers
    • Tiago Hespanha
    • Luisa Homem
    • Leonor Noivo
  • Stars
    • José Smith Vargas
    • Carla Galvão
    • Njamy Sebastião
Top credits
  • Director
    • Pedro Pinho
  • Writers
    • Tiago Hespanha
    • Luisa Homem
    • Leonor Noivo
  • Stars
    • José Smith Vargas
    • Carla Galvão
    • Njamy Sebastião
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 2User reviews
    • 29Critic reviews
    • 59Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 19 wins & 32 nominations

    Photos18

    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    José Smith Vargas, Hermínio Amaro, and Rui Ruivo in The Nothing Factory (2017)
    José Smith Vargas in The Nothing Factory (2017)
    Carla Galvão in The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    The Nothing Factory (2017)
    Dinis Gomes, Américo Silva, Hermínio Amaro, and Rui Ruivo in The Nothing Factory (2017)
    Danièle Incalcaterra and José Smith Vargas in The Nothing Factory (2017)

    Top cast

    Edit
    José Smith Vargas
    Carla Galvão
    Njamy Sebastião
    Joaquim Bichana Martins
    Danièle Incalcaterra
    Hermínio Amaro
    João Santos Lopes
    Paulo Vitorino
    Rui Ruivo
    António Cajado Santos
    Zé Pedro
    Arlindo Miguel
    Boris Nunes
    Euclides Furtado
    Fernando Lopes
    Sandra Calhau
    Ricardo Gonçalves
    Dinis Gomes
    • Director
      • Pedro Pinho
    • Writers
      • Tiago Hespanha
      • Luisa Homem
      • Leonor Noivo
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Soundtracks
      A Noite das Gárgulas
      Written by Focolitus

      Performed by Focolitus

      Courtesy of C.A.G.A. Records

      Under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 License

    User reviews2

    Review
    Top review
    6/10
    Pinho's scattershot pieces simply do not cohere as a narrative feature
    Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Pinho's THE NOTHING FACTORY takes home the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes, with the jury's verdict as follows: "An evocative activist film that blows the boundaries between reality, fiction, theater and sociological discourse leading to an unsettling and provocative cinematic experience." but, it is an overstatement, because there is nothing unsettling and provocative in this meandering docu-drama, a hodgepodge of didactic, verbose theoretical discussions and workaday miserabilism perpetuating around a cohort of blue-collar workers who are saddled with a massive layoff.

    Most courageously, the film offers its audience a fine-tooth combing of the downside of capitalism, and hammers home the inevitability of its failing which is behind the lift-manufacturing factory's dodgy maneuver, smuggling machines out in the night, so they can start anew in other places while ditching the current one with their labor surplus. But it suffers from being a typical talk-the- talk endeavor which to this reviewer's lights, is flogging a dead horse.

    After negotiating with the shysters hired by the factory owner reaches a standstill, summarily, the workers are left with a half-empty factory and they decide to operate the business on their own despite that no one is equipped with the know-how of management. Anticlimactically, a seemingly propitious order from Argentina doesn't necessarily elicit the hardship-defying mettle which the story-line half-heartedly suggests, apart from an out-of-nowhere musical sequence, whose feigned elation comes a bit too late to dispel the dreadful tenor holding its stranglehold on this nearly 3-hour long realism-evoking overreach er.

    Character-arc straggles unsystematic-ally, and what Pinho and his team actually excel is the atmospheric construct: a disconsolate Lisbon colored with invariably somber hue refracts Pinho's own personalistic rumination of the city and his compassion to his beleaguered subjects might not be immediately felt, because self-consciously he knows he is trying to tackle with something much bigger, but to little avail (it is not that a solution is a requisite, but Pinho's scattershot pieces simply do not cohere as a narrative feature). Just like the contrived materialization of a bevy of ostriches loping in the wilderness during the film's middle passage, he intends to speak for those ostracized, marginalized, underprivileged, but visionary illumination is in dire paucity.
    helpful•4
    11
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Nov 11, 2017

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 21, 2017 (Portugal)
    • Country of origin
      • Portugal
    • Official sites
      • Official Site
      • Production company site
    • Languages
      • Portuguese
      • French
    • Also known as
      • La fábrica de nada
    • Filming locations
      • Lisbon, Portugal
    • Production company
      • Terratreme Filmes
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $42,657
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 57 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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