Another View 2017 / A fábrica de nada / Portugal 2017
One day, workers at an elevator factory receive an unpleasant surprise: at night someone has taken away all the equipment and materials, so it’s impossible to continue production. The struggle for existence is on – not only via sophisticated negotiating tactics but also with the help of singing, dancing, and vaguely idealistic leftist theories.
One day, workers at an elevator factory receive an unpleasant surprise: overnight someone has removed all the equipment and materials, so it’s impossible to continue production. Attempting to navigate the ensuing chaos, the workers arrive at the only possible solution – to strike! But help is at hand in the form of song, dance, a leftist theorist, and sophisticated negotiation methods. Pedro Pinho's genre-fluid debut offers up a provokingly ambiguous gloss on the Portuguese economic crisis, integrated with reflections on the value of human labor. The director’s documentary past shines clearly in his realistic approach to the movie’s foundations, while the superstructure is built with exaggeration – chillingly witty, sometimes absurd. He then layers in an undertone of deep sorrow over the collapse of basic social mechanisms and interpersonal relationships that succumb to financial and emotional corruption. The film’s extravagant visual conception is enhanced by the use of 16 mm film stock.
Anna Kořínek
176 min / Color, DCP
Director Pedro Pinho
/ Screenplay Pedro Pinho, Luísa Homem, Leonor Noivo, Tiago Hespanha
/ Dir. of Photography Vasco Viana
/ Music José Smith Vargas, Pedro Rodrigues
/ Editor Cláudia Oliveira, Edgar Feldman, Luísa Homem
/ Producer João Matos, Leonor Noivo, Luísa Homem, Pedro Pinho, Susana Nobre, Tiago Hespanha
/ Production Terratreme Filmes
/ Cast José Smith Vargas, Carla Galvão, Njamy Sebastião, Joaquim Bichana Martins, Daniele Incalcaterra
/ Sales Memento International
Pedro Pinho (b. 1977, Lisbon), Portuguese cameraman, director, scriptwriter, and producer, completed his study of film in Lisbon, Paris, and London. In 2008 he and Frederico Lobo directed the feature-length documentary Bab sebta, which took awards at Marseille, Doclisboa, and Forum Doc in Brazil. A year later he and five other filmmakers founded Terratreme productions, and the company soon began playing a key role in the rise of a new generation of Portuguese filmmakers. Pinho’s mid-length feature The End of the World (Um fim do mundo, 2013) was presented at numerous world festivals after its premiere at the Berlinale. In 2014 he and Luísa Homem directed the documentary As cidades e as trocas. The Nothing Factory is his feature debut.
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E-mail: [email protected]
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