TIFF 2024: On Falling
Laura Carreira’s workplace drama On Falling does Ken Loach better than Ken Loach – it's a deeply moving depiction of emotional purgatory in working-class Scotland
Edinburgh-based Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira makes her much-anticipated feature film debut with the quietly crushing workplace drama On Falling. Working in a social realist style that relies primarily on agonising long-shots and dialled-back performances, Carreira’s powerful film imposes a painful hold on its viewer which doesn’t let go for the film’s duration. Tackling themes of immigration, workers' rights and suicide, the film takes the form of slow-building snippets of everyday hell. Carreira taps into the deeply human realisation that modern life requires a new kind of emotional labour, where simply surviving is not enough.
We begin on a silent commute taken by Aurora (Joana Santos). The grey palette (as shot by Carreira’s regular cinematographer Karl Kürten) instantly alludes to our protagonist's acute loneliness. She arrives at an Amazon-like storeroom and begins her day scanning products to be sent out to customers, with the items she selects – a baby doll, a make-up kit, a travel guide to the Bahamas – evoking a life of recreation a million miles from her own. All of her interactions with colleagues and flatmates revolve around the three Ws; work, wealth and weather. Whether she owes money to her friend for petrol or is simply commenting on the “shit [Scottish] weather!”, Aurora’s social life is repetitive and somewhat dull, with few meaningful human connections in sight.
Some interactions come close: one being with a co-worker who initiates a shy conversation over lunch. It’s an endearing and well-directed exchange between two introverts attempting to connect but it’s ultimately a moment giving a false sense of hope. More optimism is found in the kind efforts of Aurora’s new Polish flatmate, Kris (Piotr Sikora), who attempts to involve her in his social activities, though Aurora’s pressing financial issues and, more aggressively, hunger quickly drown out any ambitions for fulfilment.
Mired in austerity and isolation, Aurora moves through life in a dissociative daze. The struggle for survival seems to have taken all that is definitive from Aurora’s existence, which is expressed most pointedly in a harrowing job interview where Aurora is asked what she enjoys doing outside of work, and all she can think of as a reply is “the laundry”.
On Falling is produced by Sixteen Films, the company founded by Ken Loach (alongside Paul Laverty and Rebecca O'Brien), but Carreira isn’t simply following in the Kes and I, Daniel Blake director’s footsteps. In contrast to the comprehensive sermons of Loach’s filmmaking, the agony in Careirra’s understated screenplay lies in what’s not said. In place of righteous and tear-inducing speeches, Carreira prefers scathing close-ups and nuanced performances.
As we consider the stakes of Aurora's situation, each mundane moment becomes nightmarish. The initially relatable process of silently stealing a crisp packet from her flatmate’s cupboard is transformed into a deeply political act, with Carreira’s precise filmmaking influencing how the audience receives every second of On Falling. What ensues is a tonal, emotional repression that comes to a head in a gut-wrenching finale, which considers the work-to-live existence with brutal sincerity.
On Falling had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and screens at BFI London Film Festival on 17 & 19 Oct