The film On falling (2024), written and directed by Laura Carreira, explores the life of a Portuguese migrant Aurora (played by Joana Santos), who works long hours as a “picker” in a large warehouse on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Every move she makes in her working day for this Amazon-like company is electronically monitored so that any slowdown in her work rate attracts management attention. The pay is so low that the cost of repairing her mobile phone causes her to suffer acute hunger as well as the intense shame of missing a contribution to the electricity meter for her shared house (she lies completely still and cold in her darkened room hoping that no one notices her presence). Her phone has been her only thread of connection to a parallel reality that seems to offer some fleeting distraction from her intense loneliness. What is especially compelling about this film is that most of the people she encounters are kind: a generous Polish migrant in her house; a cosmetic store employee who applies some free eye shadow, wishing her well for what will be failed job interview; and the older park employee who finds her slumped among autumn leaves, and comforts her as she regains consciousness. To the global company she is merely a fragment of exchangeable code, a human robot who must endlessly rove the aisles to collect and scan products for people that she will never meet. On falling is the most astute cinematic portrayal of the algorithmic economy that I have seen.
