After Ken Loach’s filmmaking retirement last year, the second time he’s retired but this time with the reasonable caveat of his elder years, I certainly had concern over who would step into his unique storytelling space, one which can feel too distinct and equally vast, and continue to make important and insightful films about ordinary people struggling in everyday situations. Loach’s films have never been just about small factions of society, his films like My Name is Joe, Sorry We Missed You, and I, Daniel Blake (all written by Paul Laverty) have explored truthful and emotional social issues that affect so many in today’s uneven society.

While On Falling is the excellent feature debut from Portuguese-Scottish writer and director Laura Carreira, I mention Loach because his production company, Sixteen Films, backs this film along with Bro Cinema, as well as distribution from Conic – and together reframing his style of story. This is significant because this film offers a vital narrative of our wider world, one of huge warehouses, and mental health and multinational companies who’ve tapped into the ease of the internet and mass ordering – and then focusing the story on the people who work there, the warehouse workers within the system – trapped by a fair personal necessity to earn and exist, and also held by the fear of the rules that keep us inside it.

In On Falling, we follow Portuguese immigrant Aurora (brilliantly portrayed by Joana Santos), who’s a picker in a Scottish fulfilment centre, meaning she has a handheld scanner with assorted items to collect for orders from wherever she’s sent amongst the endless shelving. And to summarise, as you’ll see, she scans the box she’s putting the items into and the machine beeps, then the items are scanned and the machine beeps, then on repeat… the box *beep* the item *beep* the…. And so forth. While the very nature of the mundane repetitive task, in a storytelling sense, could become dull to watch because these sequences stand us in a longer shot, it becomes a necessary, essential representation of her overall reality.

With this brutal and severed working focus, alongside Aurora’s fear of time constraints for each pick, director Carreira precisely portrays the situation, which gives this very real-life story justice. In the wider sense, this could be any factory or warehouse in the world. It offers a true sense of the separation you can feel in such a role. I’ve personally worked in call centres, and the number you become instead of a person, along with the panic of your paid time being recorded at every second, is a genuine and valid worry. And also horrible for morale, and even self-worth. That lingering feeling that Santos portrays, in a sense of ‘who am I?’ is further signified by a random drug test scene later on in the film, which is someone else ‘just doing their job’ but the actuality is: why am I being treated like a criminal? However, at this point Aurora is so detached from what she’s being asked to do, forced on by no specific attachment or desire for the role, she doesn’t even care anymore and so just goes along with it.

But what makes On Falling particularly unique is Laura Carreira’s camera work and style which never over dramatizes what gradually becomes a saddening, and intimate, portrait of the life of migrant worker in the UK. Scotland itself is portrayed as friendly, as it should be, so there’s no weird anti-immigrant stance from the people involved, but instead her film focuses deep into the link between working and loneliness, when you’re in a situation just hanging onto your authenticity and the need for somewhere to live. Where money coming in is never quite enough, and when your ‘dreams’ of a better job are almost impossible because you can’t afford to not work now; a reflection of society seen everywhere – and one that certainly never feels right.

We also spend much of our time just watching her everyday moments, between sitting in her bedroom of the flat share and seeing people in the kitchen, and then from work floor to the canteen, with its quick fix sugary food and basic offerings. You see she’s gradually quieter, which grows worse as the narrative progresses, because while she’s longing to connect, what do you talk about when all you do is work? That desolation is fully portrayed during a job interview, when asked about hobbies during an informal interview chat – but she’s got nothing to say, and doesn’t seem to know why she’s got nothing; it’s incredible, subtle work from Joana Santos, who is exceptional throughout. Never overly dramatic, always kind, always working hard – and yet her only reward is a chocolate bar from her young manager, something you might get if you were a child, not an adult.

On Falling facilitates the fight to highlight the ever-growing societal disparity set upon us by those who can afford to treat everyone like a number, without any concerted effort to realign the increasing wealth gap between the social classes. It certainly doesn’t misrepresent any normal workers in these industries, if anything the passing characters we encounter add an extra insight to share with Aurora and – therefore – with the viewer. While the question of ‘how do we deal with this’ as a whole is complex, it doesn’t mean we should accept it, nor does it mean that it should be normal –  something I think about when people talk about the ‘cost of living crisis’ just as easily as we now appear to accept people living on the streets and in shop doorways, without any collective action to actually solve it.

I think On Falling brings all these questions to the fore, which makes it vital filmmaking and storytelling, representing the enormous numbers of those stuck on zero hour-contracts and trapped within a gig economy. Everyone should have the opportunity to represent their own true self, and while you may not always be able to do the job you want to, you should be able to feel human within that situation. This is exceptional, influential, and poised filmmaking from Laura Carreira, with hopefully more work to look out for in the near future.

On Falling screened at the Glasgow Film Festival, and is in UK cinemas now

Head to the directors Instagram for more: https://www.instagram.com/carreira_lau/?hl=en