THE NOTHING FACTORY WAV D: Pedro Pinho. Portugal. 177 min. Sep 7, 7 pm AGO Sep 17, 2:30 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox 4. Rating: NNNN
The “end of capitalism” is an increasingly common phrase these days. Though Western manufacturing hubs have long been collapsing, the situation seems never-ending, and that feeling of not knowing what comes next is the subject of Pedro Pinho’s feature-length fiction debut.
When management at an elevator factory near Lisbon surreptitiously sell off equipment, workers are outraged. But over the film’s three hours their anger morphs into nagging existentialism. An Italian filmmaker (Daniel Incalcaterra) shows up and suggests capitalism is not worth salvaging, but worker Ze (José Smith Vargas), whose home life is silently suffering, pushes back.
Shooting on 16 mm, Pinho probes deeply and philosophically into a familiar story. Tightly framed close-ups emphasize conflicting, often highly gendered real-world concerns, while beautiful shots of post-industrial landscapes (plus a musical number) underscore the disoriented, dream-like purgatory the workers inhabit.
Only the scenes with the filmmaker, which take things into meta territory, feel a tad reductive as Pinho is so effective at connecting micro and macro ideas in the way he captures subtleties in his largely non-professional cast’s performances.
