Most of them refuse to co-operate during the individual negotiations and they start to occupy their workplace...."[7]The film is inspired in part by the Portuguese Fataleva (Fortis Elevadores Ltda) factory workers who ran it collectively from 1975 to 2016,[8][9][10] after being taken over by the Otis Elevator Company in 1970.

[11][12] It is inspired in part by De Nietsfabriek, a 1997 Dutch play by playwright and poet Judith Herzberg.

[23] Jessica Kiang of Variety, while attending its screening at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, called The Nothing Factory "a shaggily eccentric but overlong and undisciplined drama".

[25] Screen Daily said, "The film gets more unpredictable as it goes along...an ensemble piece with something of a community theatre feel"[13] The Hollywood Reporter said, "The straightforward, nonfiction-like material is laced with short montage sequences, set to rock music, in which capitalism and the current state of the Old Continent are discussed in voiceover.

"[14] Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook said, "The Nothing Factory is a prime example of the cinema of small nations"[26] 2018 Sophia Awards (pt) for Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay.