Machines

If this was a Harun Farocki film, it would be “Workers never Leaving the Factory”. References to northern england in the early 1800’s come to mind, but this is probably still worse than any Dickens novel. In MACHINES we walk into the fiery flames of a giant indian sweatshop. In a scene, a man is stoking an industrial furnace, only protected by a handkerchief. In this film, the titular machines are of steel and flesh. Artful filmmaking and camera work literally walk or float us through the enclosed eco-system in clever tracking and following shots. It is Jain’s masterly timing and dramaturgy that every time you are about to get lost in the initially isolated and cryptic steps of the industrial process he knowingly steps in with an intervention or short interview. Jain uniquely puts the viewer at eye level with the workers, entangling and capturing them in the same limited scope of action and (false) hope, simulating the depressing and frustrating non-choices of these millions of migrant daylabourers. (Jutta Brendemühl)

In the presence of Rahul Jain.