Next Stop: Utopia

The 20 men that occupied the VIOME factory on February 2013 had been jobless and desperate for a year and a half. They belonged to the lowest rank of a company that used to produce building materials in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki. Following the proposal of Makis Anagnostou, their charismatic leader, the workers issued a manifesto declaring their goal to run the factory as a co-op under principle of absolute equality. Political groups of the left across the world embraced the initiative and rallied to its support. The workers - previously politically indifferent or conservative - suddenly found themselves appearing at the cutting edge of global resistance movements. From the first day of the factory occupation we observe these men, their efforts in their day-to-day lives in and out of the factory. In order to survive, they need to produce goods and sell them. As they experiment on the production of new ecological cleaning products their lack of know-how becomes apparent. As time passes, the internal conflicts build up; not everyone shares the same enthusiasm and confidence in the plan, not everyone works the same, trust between them deteriorates. When a window of opportunity opens their commitment is put on trial.