Factory to the Workers (Tvornice Radnicima) is an engrossing fly-on-the-wall documentary about the struggles of a collectively owned Croatian machine tools factory trying to deal with the new economic realities of a changing world.
There is something engagingly old-fashioned about both the film’s shooting style and subject matter. Director Srđan Kovačević embedded himself within the company over a five year period, clearly gaining the trust of the workforce, and places his camera amongst both managers and workers as tempers rise and battles are waged over how to keep the company afloat and what its future might be.
In Croatia in 2005, machine tools factory ITAS was occupied by its workers, and since then it has operated collectively, becoming the only successful example of a worker occupation in post-socialist Europe.
As the film follows developments, a new model of collective ownership is sought, and the world of the factory floor is inevitably pitted against the forces of the globalised market economy. The tough world of business has an increasingly brutal impact on wages and the organisation of the factory, which leads to rising disaffection among the workers.
There is discontent in the ranks with salaries at times reduced or paid late, while at the same time the latest worker-elected director angrily confronts staff about late delivery, errors or good old-fashioned drunkenness on the workfloor. The workforce has changed since the initial move to the collective model – some of the original team have retired or passed away – and there is an underlying sense that the practical, gritty communal-run machine tools business sits uneasily within the new modern business model.
Some of the old guard speak fondly about the old days of communism when at least you worked and got paid, while some of the new, younger workers are set to leave for new commercially run companies.
As things get worse and the money situation becomes dire there is a vote to remove the latest director. Varga, one of the veteran workers – and one of the few always keen to take the microphone when it come to the regular worker meetings – takes over, convinced that the old regime had got it wrong, but as the film comes to a close (with a scene of a tired looking Varga staring silently out of the office window) it is clear there are no easy solutions.
Factory to the Workers is the fascinating and non-judgmental inside story of the workers who challenged the dominant economic narrative with their actions. After a decade – as the filmmaker suggests – the same question remains: “can a factory in the hands of workers survive at the periphery of capitalism, or do we need a bigger dream?” The film provides no easy answers, but offers instead an enthralling snapshot of a complex and deeply challenging business model.
Croatia, 2021, 105mins
Dir Srđan Kovačević
Production Fade In, Croatian Audiovisual Centre
Producers Sabine Kresic, Luka Venturin
Cinematography Srđan Kovačević
Editor Damir Cucic
