On Falling

Laura Carreira's first feature follows roughly ten days in the life of Aurora (Joana Santos), a Portuguese migrant working as an order picker in a vast distribution warehouse in Edinburgh. Her wages barely cover her solitary life, a single unexpected expense would be a catastrophe, and she struggles to connect with either her coworkers or the other migrant workers she shares a flat with. Carreira, born in Lisbon and living in Scotland since her teens, studied film at Edinburgh College of Art while working in a department store cafe and as a carer, and drew directly on her own precarity. She toured a real fulfillment center in Dunfermline and interviewed warehouse workers as research, with some real workers appearing in the film, which was produced by Ken Loach's company Sixteen Films. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024, won Carreira a shared Silver Shell for Best Director at San Sebastián, and took the Sutherland Award at the BFI London Film Festival, the first British feature to do so since 2010, while Joana Santos won Best Actress at both Thessaloniki and the Portuguese Film Academy. Its UK theatrical release came in March 2025. Who it's for: Admirers of social realist cinema that observes contemporary labor conditions quietly and patiently. Who it's not for: Not for viewers who need plot and dramatic turning points, since the film is deliberately slow, repetitive and uneventful.