Laura Carreira’s Feature Debut ‘On Falling’ Drops Trailer 

Amidst the labyrinthine shelves of a fulfilment centre in Edinburgh, a lonely picker scans a variety of items that go from sex toys to office knick-knacks. The picker is Aurora (Joana Santos), a Portuguese immigrant whose difficult transition to life in Scotland is captured in depth in Laura Carreira’s feature debut, “On Falling.” 

World premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, then playing main competition at San Sebastián, “On Falling” builds on issues of the mental toll of labor Carreira previously explored in the award-winning shorts “Red Hill” and “The Shift.” “Coming to Scotland and starting my first job was quite crucial in me being introduced to the field of work. It was such a shock and completely changed the way I saw the world from then on. I am still processing it now,” Carreira told Variety. 

“I think our world could be a lot more interesting and inventive if we didn’t just succumb to living for our jobs,” she continued. “I guess all my films come from this frustration. I think the rise in our anxieties and a general difficulty in finding our own purpose and meaning comes from this limitation, especially because most of us need to work so much to make ends meet.”

For a feature debut, “On Falling” proved quite challenging an undertaking. But out of challenges came creative solutions, like amalgamating five different warehouses to create the massive fulfilment centre Aurora works in. “We combined the warehouses in the editing. You don’t realise they are different spaces because the production designer helped create a cohesion between the spaces so they felt the same even if we moved locations.”

Although setting the film in a place that felt true to the real-life ones that inspired “On Falling” was of great importance, it was even more vital to Carreira to write characters that felt just as real. To achieve that, the filmmaker spent months asking friends of friends to introduce her to local pickers, soon forming a large network of people willing to talk about the specificities and the challenges of the job. 

“I wanted to understand how long is the shift, when are the breaks, if they have colleagues in the workplace. I wanted to understand people’s routines.” This understanding was made all more potent once Carreira went on a public tour of one of the largest fulfilment centres in Scotland, an experience that inspired the scene unveiled in the film’s first teaser. 

“On Falling” marks one of Sixteen Films’s first produced features following Ken Loach’s retirement in 2023 and echoes many of the themes explored by the famed British filmmaker throughout his career, from issues of labor to immigration and class inequality. “I think it’s important to work with people who understand where you’re coming from, who have compassion and who want to put that compassion into films,” Carreira said of working with the production company. “I feel very lucky.”

“Lucky” is also the word Carreira used to describe how she is feeling about world premiering her debut in Toronto. “I feel very honored. It’s very nice to get accepted by festivals because they are, in a way, the first people to see it, which is already positive in itself. It’s going to be a new experience for me and I am excited to get out there, seeing films and meeting filmmakers. That’s what it’s all about.”