On Falling Review: Window Into Working Class

On Falling is a stunning success for Laura Carreira, whose debut feature is an insightful and empathetic social realist drama about working class hardships.

If she takes too long between scanning items, her device begins to beep threateningly. She is stuck on a productivity treadmill, always seconds away from stumbling.

Like Kitty Green’s The Assistant, which is about the microaggressions faced by a female assistant in a movie producer’s office, On Falling is observational in nature. It is a film of connotations and inferences, which crescendo and contribute to Aurora’s increasing sense of helplessness. Every scene is a mosquito bite, a little niggle which, in isolation, could be shrugged off, but taken as a whole, it shows Aurora’s life to be lacking necessities, dignity, and joy. She moves through days motivated only by getting to tomorrow, as she goes home to a dimly lit room, no money or time to make space for passions in her life. Dinners are toast and plain pastas. 

It’s why she and her friend dream of an office job with a salary and stable hours. An unconventional idea of a picture perfect life that might be, but it promises the kind of foundations Aurora and her colleagues lack to live with fulfilment. They are all merely existing, hoping they have enough money to top up their electricity meter, never mind thinking about enjoying themselves. 

This thread about hobbies and desires shows Carreira’s heart as a writer. The cost of living crisis in the UK led to comments in the media about giving up the tiniest pleasures in life to make ends meet. In On Falling, one’s purpose in life is prioritised alongside ideas of being sufficiently compensated for one’s work and being treated with respect in the workplace. One heart-wrenching scene sees Aurora lie about being into karaoke, going to the cinema, and travelling, because the reality is simply too affronting to share. Because of her job, she is shut out from a life of fun and culture; she literally cannot afford to have interests, and that, Carreira’s script says, is no more acceptable than going hungry. 

There’s a scene in which Aurora is being driven to work by her friend, who asks for petrol money. Moments later, her friend mentions a jumper she has sitting at home gathering dust, which she ought to return. It’s the kind of interaction, loaded with questions of fairness, that could only be written by someone with an innate understanding of how what feels insignificant to one person is a source of anxiety for another. Aurora says nothing, but if her friend returned the jumper, wouldn’t she be in a much better place and not have to ask Aurora for money? Later, Aurora has to decide whether to use someone else’s shampoo because hers has run out and she has no money for more. 

Produced by Ken Loach’s Sixteen Films, On Falling shares his social realist touch, but this is an altogether less brutal experience than some of his later work. That is in large part thanks to its representation of Aurora’s colleagues and the people she lives with. On Falling shows the working class, across the board, to be generous and kind – something too rarely seen on screen – often going without so others are provided for, and turning a blind eye when blame would solve nothing. Aurora is trapped in a frustrating existence, and watching her stuck in a Sisyphean cycle day after day – visually represented in the film by a box tumbling down an upward conveyer belt, unmoving – is upsetting, but this isn’t a hopeless film. Little kindnesses are a reminder to keep going, especially when it all feels too much. 

But Aurora’s life is hard. It’s made harder by floor managers who identify her by an ID number rather than her name. More so when she is commended for her performance, only to be rewarded with a chocolate bar. This interaction in particular exists as if to make a mockery of the notion that hard work is sufficiently rewarded. What more can Aurora, someone regularly singled out for praise, do when she’s already going above and beyond, yet still can’t afford to keep the lights on? On Falling is the kind of storytelling that can only be told by a filmmaker motivated by authenticity and a sense of justice, and who can see that for many, there is none of the latter. It is a massive triumph of empathetic and incisive art which should be seen by everyone. 

On Falling was screened at the Glasgow Film Festival on February 28, 2025. Read our Glasgow Film Festival reviews and our list of films to watch at the 2025 Glasgow Film Festival!