On Falling

On Falling Review

If you liked any of Aki Kaurismäki's films, you would love this one. It's dark, humorous, and feel so very present. I can't vouch for 'real', but every element feels relevant and trivial at the same time. Nothing's resolved. I call this 'being present.'

I went into the cinema thinking that everything would be clearly dystopian, perhaps an Orwellian or Atwood's atmosphere. Or more relevant to today's language, something like Severance, where you just know an ominous disaster is awaiting the main character somewhere and everything's going to feel off. I saw the trailer and thought, OK, someone from her past is going to reappear and destroy her routine. Or she's going to have a big internal epiphany due to meeting someone new or a disaster of some sort. Or it's going to be like Full Time (French À plein temps), where we will get to see that in fact, 'the everyday' can itself be dystopian enough without extra drama. I expected to just feel bad for Aurora all the time. None of these happened.

Like Full Time, it also features someone whose life circumstances are not ideal. You wouldn't want to be in her shoes. But unlike Full Time, I think the director here takes a much more light-hearted approach, which, ironically, is a lot more impactful. Small humours are thrown in casually-they're not exactly 'witty' or scripted, they're just funny things we can see people do, which is the best kind of humour. Aurora's every moment, alone or not, is featured. There's no yelling or visible panicking. Due to this lack of extreme tension or 'forced' drama, it's easy to slide into Aurora's mind. Once that happens, you feel her reality a lot more closely than if you were just observing.

Then something magical happens. You won't exactly be 'rooting' for her because you don't root for yourself-you just live, like Aurora does. You also won't be figuring out the potential plot development because you're no longer detached. Instead, you simply resonate with her. You suddenly get why the Polish roommate's kindness matters so much, or why you'd want that blue eyeshadow. You feel all the awkward pauses as a first person.

The best thing about the film is just how so many moments feel unresolved. That's the genius of it. Most of our lives are fragmented and you just cannot get a resolution on everything. There are some light motifs throughout the film which give it an artistic edge, but they are again naturally thrown in and don't feel forced. Yes, of course, it's a commentary on evil corporations, but the director doesn't make it overtly political at all. I feel it's more of a character study.

The more I write, the more I realise just how ingenious and deep the film is. I think I'll watch it again.

Saw this at IFFR 2025, the International Film Festival Rotterdam. This movie can easily be considered an indictment against the sort of slavery we (you and I, the warehouse customers) bring about to obtain the stuff we want delivered on our doorstep. It is not slavery in the literal sense, since they get minimum wage and are not mistreated in any way, but it is a daunting sight anyway to see how their daily grind works.

And alas, their life outside the warehouse is not much better. Compact housing, and nothing much to do outside work hours. Making friends beyond the obligatory Hello and Where Are You From in passing, is virtually impossible, neither at work nor at "home".

All the people we meet on screen are passersby, and we don't know much about them. Even Aurora, the center of the story, is a black box for us, and remains that until the finale. No opportunity for us to invest in the characters, if only to feel along with their work circumstances, and neither are we involved in their life at home or their leisure activities or even their reasons for being there.

All in all, we are flies on the wall, at work as well as at home. We should feel guilty because of causing all this "slavery", but we don't. We could pity their way of living, but we don't. We should want to know how these people arrived there and what (other) plans they have with their lives, but the movie doesn't tell us anything. A missed opportunity, or done on purpose??

"Aurora" (Joana Santos) has left the warmth of Portugal and moved to a rather dreich Scotland where she works as a picker in an warehouse. The job is the epitome of mundanity and repetitiveness - walking the aisles scanning items bought online and making sure she does it quickly enough to earn her paltry reward at the end of the week. It couldn't quite be called "slavery", but it's not a kick in the shirt off it as she and her colleagues collect the minimum wage for their work. She lives in a flat-share where the daily routine extends to microwave meals and the occasional chat with her flatmates. One new lad, "Kris" (Piotr Sikora) arrives and seems a little more inclined to break the monotony of things, but she accidentally drops her phone and the £99 it costs to have the screen repaired pretty much wipes her out for the month and reduces her to a starvation diet. Perhaps there are hopes of a new job? At any rate, she has to break this depressing cycle before it breaks her! This film doesn't miss and hit the wall when it presents us with the automation of human life. "Aurora" lives a life of a robot, and the brain-rot that it induces is plain to see, but sadly it also indices a bit of ennui in the viewer too. It's very authenticity is what makes it dull to watch and none of the characterisations are remotely developed enough to make anyone care about her. Sure, the environment is a shocking indictment of the consumer culture that is best exemplified here by a team brief in which they celebrate the corporate glory by giving the staff a cup cake, but once that point has been made and absorbed, the rest of this is just as unchanging as the message. Why is she here? Why doesn't she return home? Her emotional and physical isolation seems contrived for dramatic purposes rather than being particularly plausible. The acting is competent enough and there isn't so much dialogue to trouble us so maybe that's why I found it all just a bit too one-dimensional.

Was not ready for such a slow movie. It was really slow going. And depressing here and there. Not all the time, cause Aurora seems to be fine most of the time. But she can't possibly be, can she? This is no kind of life. Although it's the life of many, but it's no way to live. And I'll never be able to understand why you would leave Portugal for Scotland to do this kind of job where you are barely surviving on the money you make from week to week. Like I am sure she could have done the same exact job at home, but at least she would've been around her people, in her own home, in the sun. That makes no sense to me. And of course it's never addressed. We don't know anything about Aurora, why she is living like this, for what, how she came to be this way. She is smart, poised, presentable, well spoken, relatively attractive. What could derail her life so much?

Also, stop online shopping so much people. If not for the sake of these poor pickers then at least to reduce the carbon footprint. Walking to the shops is good for you too. Shops employ people too.