Written and directed by Laura Carreira, Aurora, a Portuguese migrant, works as an order picker in a warehouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. Caught between the walls of a huge distribution centre and the solitude of her own room, Aurora tries to seize every opportunity to resist the alienation and isolation that threaten her identity. Starring: Joana Santos, Inês Vaz, Piotr Sikora, Neil Leiper, Jake McGarry, Itxaso Moreno, Leah MacRae and Billy Mack.
It’s genuinely impressive how Laura Carreira instils the themes of isolation and loneliness in On Falling. Carreira feeds them into every decision, every interaction, it’s all encompassing and a fantastic example of how cinema can be sincerely intense while entirely understated. The style is so scaled back to keep pure focus on Aurora (Joana Santos) that it can be almost painfully striking to watch at times. It’s hitting those notes of desperation for human contact so well that it’s somehow both endearing and deeply saddening.
Having her working in a warehouse was not only very relevant but a clever way to portray how in a modern world, with the help of technology and large working environments, people can be reduced to numbers. As well as how that experience then creates a sense of isolation while among others, with constant turnover and limited interaction or personal touches. It captures how easy it is to feel invisible and the deeper we turn inwards, the more of ourselves that we lose, erased by silence and doomscrolling.
A strong part of why capturing all of that manages to be so intense is the performance from Joana Santos. There’s nothing more you could have asked of Santos for this role, she has it down to a tee, she makes Aurora gentle and kind, self-sufficient, proud and hard-working. Qualities that can be both a blessing and a burden which she exemplifies so well here. Her performance is undoubtedly complimented by Laura Carreira’s eye for detail and the depth of Karl Kürten’s cinematography.
On Falling is a stirring portrait of quiet struggle. It’s slow, pensive and explores a sincerely touching and heavy sadness. It’s an exceptional debut feature from Laura Carreira, the tone and detail are so consistent all throughout and yet there is also a clear evolution, it goes a long way without ever really needing to go anywhere. The texture and richness to the aesthetic intensifies all of the solitude and loneliness, capturing how difficult it can be in day to day life to create an honest, genuine connection with another person, and how much we lose without that.
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