On Falling [2024]

 It’s only appropriate that Laura Carreira’s exceptionally assured debut film On Falling was produced by ‘Sixteen Films’ – which was co-founded by Ken Loach – given how closely it mirrored the British giant’s profound empathy for the working-class and the disenfranchised, and, in particular, for its intimate and nuanced portrayal of the human cost of gig economy workers, a topic that Loach had delved into in Sorry We Missed You. This delicate, understated and quietly heartbreaking work was steadfastly centred on Aurora (Joana Santos), a Portuguese woman working at a massive e-commerce warehouse in Scotland. Her existence is a dreary combination of dehumanized labour – she works long-hours in a job of crushing monotony, for a pittance, under patronizing micro-management and constant passive-aggressive supervision – and her nights at a crowded co-living space occupied by immigrant workers like her, upon returning exhausted. It’s a life, therefore, of ennui, isolation, loneliness, alienation and despair. Her only human connections are the stray conversations during lunch hours, her rides back home with a Portuguese colleague – discussing their desire to switch into a marginally more meaningful job – and the fleeting bond that she develops with Polish trucker Kris (Piotr Sikora) who’s recently moved in as flatmate; her only other distractions are her mobile phone, which she gets lost into whenever she’s in a break or off work, and binging on chocolates. Set over the course of a week, this luminously shot film is marvellously led by Santos; her boredom, anxieties and hints of edginess are ensconced within her placid surface; it was, consequently, particularly affecting when she lets her emotions out – as in the pub where she gets invited by Kris or during the desolate job interview.

Director: Laura Carreira

Genre: Drama/Urban Drama

Language: English/Portuguese

Country: UK