'Quietly devastating': Baroness O’Grady reviews 'On Falling'

Joana Santos as Aurora | Image courtesy of Conic

Baroness O’Grady

@FrancesOGrady

Low-paid, casualised work now has new technology and a new name: the ‘gig economy’. But the human cost is as high as ever. 

Scotland-based filmmaker Laura Carreira’s fine debut feature, On Falling, focuses on Aurora, a Portuguese migrant worker employed as a picker in the UK’s growing warehouse sector, also infamously rebranded as ‘fulfilment centres’. 

Aurora clocks up miles as she paces up and down aisles selecting goods for home delivery, while electronic beeps from a digital handset provide the soundtrack to her working life. 

A manager tells visitors that products are scattered across the cavernous warehouse like a treasure hunt to make the work “more interesting”. But the job is relentlessly repetitive and exhausting, and Aurora, in a brilliantly subtle performance by Joana Santos, is slowly unravelling. 

An older Scottish workmate muses that “we’re here for a good time, not a long time”, urging Aurora to get out and enjoy herself. But making friends isn’t easy when working hours are long and the job is lonely. Shift patterns mean that Aurora only ever sees her flatmates fleetingly in the kitchen (there is no living room) and, in any case, a social life requires money.

The strain begins to show. A colleague with whom Aurora had begun to bond fails to show up for work. An accidentally smashed phone forces a choice between paying for its repair or her share of the electricity bill. Her request to take time off is refused, jeopardising a job interview for potentially more meaningful work. But it is when Aurora struggles to answer an innocent question about what she likes to do outside of work that she finally crumbles – a quietly devastating portrait of a woman falling.

Every indignity depicted on screen is rooted in real working-class life

In the tradition of social realist cinema, every indignity depicted on screen is rooted in real working-class life. High performing pickers who boost profit margins are rewarded with a chocolate bar; permission is required for a toilet break with every minute digitally tracked; and demeaning drug tests are routine. Without doubt, robots would be treated with more respect than these human beings. 

On Falling never falls into the trap of despair. A charismatic new flatmate, Kris (Piotr Sikora), invites Aurora to share his home-cooked meals. For the most part, even strangers are kind and there are shoulders to lean on. The villain of this piece is not an individual but a soul-crushing corporate system of exploitation that pushes Aurora to the edge of society and, indeed, her own sanity. 

Those who argue that the Employment Rights Bill, which is currently before Parliament, is a cost to business should see this film and reflect on the cost to workers – and society – of business models that deny human dignity and security.

I hope that On Falling wins further awards for its sensitive and haunting portrayal of working life at the sharp end and that Amazon warehouse workers, still battling for the right to a union voice at work, are offered pride of place on the red carpet. 

Baroness O’Grady is Labour peer and former general secretary of the TUC

On Falling
Written & directed by: Laura Carreira
Venue: General cinema release from 7 March

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