A Decent Factory
A Decent Factory
A Decent Factory / Thomas Balmès / Finland & France / 2004 / 79 min / English, Finnish, Chinese
Director Thomas Balmès follows Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, in its quest to tackle the problem of sustainable enterprise. Is it possible to make a profit and conduct business ethically at the same time? When the film begins, the originally Finnish company Nokia has just hired Hanna Kaskinen as an 'ethical and environmental specialist', to propagate the concept of sustainable enterprise within the company. Apparently, Nokia managers are still quite unfamiliar with the phenomenon. Director Balmès follows Kaskinen and her English advisor to China, where they visit and inspect a number of Nokia suppliers. The filmmaker's direct cinema style mercilessly records the discomfort among the British managers, who walk the tightrope between profit and law. The executives' initial frankness changes when they find out that the film is not solely intended for internal use. By this time, though, we are already haunted by images of factory girls on an assembly line, putting together adapters day in and day out for less than the required minimum wage.
producer | Kaarle Aho, Thomas Balmès, Olivier Mille
screenplay | Thomas Balmès
camera | Thomas Balmès
editor | Catherine Gouze
sound | Mervi Junkkonen, Pirkko Tiitinen, Tuomas Klaavo
