Review: Factory

Factory gives a peek inside a Lenovo factory during Covid-19

The Vancouver International Film Festival started on October 2 and right out of the gate I watched a movie on the first day, a documentary from China called Factory (工厂）.

The country is known for its massive factories that churn out everything from cheap plastic goods to furniture, sex dolls to microchips and iPhones.

As trade wars have led to companies moving away from Chinese-made products, China is still considered the best when it comes to manufacturing smartphones, tablets and computers.

Viewers get access into the workers' dormitories

But what happened to these factories in early 2020 when an unknown virus seemed to originate from Wuhan, China and then spread around the world?

Director Hao Zhou focuses on the Lenovo campus in Wuhan during the pandemic and we see the operations manager named MT who is under pressure to figure out how to get workers back into the factory to get products out the door. He copes by smoking a lot.

Factory gives a very real picture of what factory managers need to do to curry favour with government officials in order to jump over bureaucratic hurdles, then rounding up workers, interviewing and training them, and then working them on the line.

It's soul-crushing work, having to work 10-12 hours a day, putting together circuit boards, assembling smartphones, testing them, and not only do it accurately but faster. Faster! Faster! 

In the 148-minute documentary, we also see life from the workers' point of view. One worker claims he is working hard enough, but his superior begs to differ, and they argue it out in front of the human resources staff. Viewers are shown what their dormitories look like, and how it's hard to get enough sleep when half the people are on the night shift, and the others on day.

Director Hao gives a real picture of factory life

One worker admits he feels lonely despite living with five other people -- he doesn't feel like he has anyone he can really talk to.

A round-faced woman wearing makeup explains she used to work in a beauty parlour and now is testing out smartphones before they are packaged. It's not the kind of work she wants to do, but it pays the bills, despite being away from her child and husband.

The younger workers don't like being called migrant workers -- that was their parents' generation. These Gen Z people want more respect and feel they deserve more pay for what they do. They only make a few hundred US dollars a month and wonder how they will ever afford to buy a home.

Meanwhile MT and senior managers are feeling the pressure to keep the company globally afloat, with supply chains in India faltering, while the United States sees its death rates skyrocket from Covid-19 infections. MT's friends wonder why he continues to do this stressful work when he's made enough money to retire. Maybe it gives him status? Financial security? Loyalty? 

Factory is pretty much unflinching picture of life inside a factory. It's quite amazing for the director to not only get this kind of access, but also be able to show many scenes with people swearing and workers being rebellious. There are even scenes addressing mental health issues like bipolar and depression, with one female worker having stomach pain issues and deals with it by cutting herself. How Hao was able to persuade Lenovo to film everything is a feat in itself.

Hopefully after watching this film, viewers will have a greater appreciation for the faceless people who made the smartphones, laptops and tablets they use everyday.

Factory

Directed by Hao Zhou

148 minutes