The Nothing Factory

Sat 5 Dec | 14:30 £6/£4.50* per person (adv 12) Dir. Pedro Pinho / Portugal / 2017 / 2h 57m One night, a group of workers realises that the administration is stealing machines and raw materials from their own factory. As they organise to survey the equipment and block the relocation of production, they are forced to stand at their posts with no work to do, as a form of retaliation, while negotiations over general lay-offs take place. The pressure leads to a breakdown of the workers along with the world around them. Inspired by the true story of the Fataleva lift factory, which was run by its own employees for over 40 years following Portugal’s Carnation Revolution in 1974, between 1975 and 2016, The Nothing Factory relocates the collective takeover to the present, against a familiar backdrop of neoliberal decline which echoes other Portuguese films of the same time in subject and approach, especially Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights trilogy. Doors open 14:00; Film starts 14:30. Drinks are available from Baltic Kitchen and may be taken into the auditorium. *Concessions: under 18s, unwaged & 65+