Since I first saw the first powerful Laura Carrera feature in the fall, I used to describe it for anyone who would listen as the first great work for economics cinema. It is a brilliant statement, but what I am trying to get is that I do not think I have seen a movie so far that picks up the unstable work experience at the moment of late capitalism.
It is located in Scotland (the site is mysterious, although the main scene is photographed on Princess Street in Edinburgh), on the fall followed by Ura (Joanna Santos), which is “picked” working in stressful transformations in the Amazon -style center. Originally from Portugal, Aurora is one of many migrant workers who make up the warehouse workforce. The story follows it for one week, as it accurately captures the impact of this work – with its inhuman suspicion and daily insults – for its particular feeling.
Carreira is a work of uncontrolled social realism, transmitted in local resonance about the human cost of consumption (heavily, produced by Ken Loch sixteen films). At the same time, the area of the strange warehouse filled with neon in the warehouse gives the surreal prosperity, which resembles a dream, which reflects the growing isolation of Aurora from reality.
Carrera Lush, Dardinis and Cantal Akreman cited main effects, as well as specifically Barbara Ludden Wanda (1970), Federico Felini nights in Capria (1957) and Irmano Olyo Il Pustu (1961), titles described by “titles”.
Before the fall, Carreira made many famous short pants – including Red Hill (2018) and The Shift (2020) – which also focused on marginalized characters at the sharp end of societal indifference. The advantage of her first appearance, which was first shown in Toronto last September to praise the critic, confirms that Carrera is a studied human film director and has a sharp eye to tell the details.
In this interview, she spoke to Carreira (which, like Ura, is also originally from Portugal but is now based in Scotland) shortly before a show at the Glasgow Film Festival.
Where did the idea of falling arose?
Laura Carrera: I have already started searching for risky work for my passion, especially the transformation. At this stage, I stumbled in the logistical services industry, which was browned by this type of work, and faced the “Picker” mission. The idea arose from this moment, to learn what this job requires.
A lot of dialogue on these jobs is about how quickly the parcels get, “innovation and technology”, Blaah Blaah. But in reality, there is a person who should recover each element that has been requested, and is monitored for 10 hours a day while rushing around the warehouse. This was horrific for me.
When I started searching, I started to communicate with people working in warehouses, and realized that many migrant workers. It was logical to create Aurora, because I learned that I could bring my experience during my early years in Scotland in the movie.
What required this search process?
I toured warehouses, was open to anyone from the audience. But I started communicating with friends, as I quickly realized that there are friends from friends who worked in these warehouses. Other people I found on the Internet. These conversations affected the film a lot, all the way to the elements chosen by Ura, but also affected the topics.
For example, many people mentioned unity. The task is physically difficult, but it is also psychologically difficult, because you are very alone. The breaks are not long enough to interact with others and most people just want to rest.
It ended with a lot of these conversations to the movie, even to the dialogue lines. There is a scene in which the character is asked about what they do after work, and they say, “I am doing washing.” This came from one of those talks. It seems simple, but it shows how free time is eaten by preparing to return to work.
The film shows how the job is isolated in every aspect of the lives of these characters.
This topic connects the entire movie. Ura is trying to communicate, but the only one you feel, and the most difficult interaction is. This was something I noticed in people’s descriptions. I also attracted my own experience of living in common apartments alongside people with different transformation patterns. It is sometimes difficult to build society in those apartments. This is even due to the fact that there is no living room, because in most cases it was converted into a bedroom, so the kitchen is the only space for social communication. I wanted to come through visually.
How did you visually picked it? This is a realistic movie, but also in the atmosphere.
It was important for me that the time would feel. This idea of doing super-draining does not have an agency-how of speed you work, or when you go to the bathroom-you want to mark this rhythm. There is always a danger with long shots of boring people, but it was important for me to say: “Come on, this person is doing it for 10 hours, you can see it for a minute!”
During the liberation, we tried to get a balance. When Aurora interacts, the camera cuts more, but in moments of embarrassment, we stay with it. I think this helped create this feeling of exposure. The camera in this uncomfortable mode is almost close, we don’t cut. We rarely have a framing that allows other characters to be part of their area. Then there are these moments when someone communicates and carries, which we shot closely, because it is useful for someone to touch it. We wanted to hold the entire frame.
Aurora is a mysterious figure, have you spoken to Joanna Santos a lot about her background?
I participated as much as I could with Joanna in terms of research. Joanna was really dedicated, even trained on various locations in a warehouse to learn rhythms and understand the movements. It has always been a balance, because she is a person who shares a little, but to go on this trip with her, it is important to understand what you think.
We were trying to use all these cinematic elements – liberation, for example, so that you know what you are looking for – to convey what Joanna’s thinking, which I got intuitively. Joanna has this calm, but she is also very transparent. It was difficult to direct it, so it was definitely something I brought by herself. It is more amazing, because this bubble person is really completely different from the character!
In the rest of the actors, real warehouse workers were also used.
We needed to throw 55 speaking roles, which were very shocking to me. When I wrote the movie, I didn’t realize that we would need a lot of people. We found some amazing actors, but we wanted diversity, and many different accents, which were difficult to throw, so we opened them to non -moarers. It ended up finding people who did this job or still doing, and welcomed them to be part of the operation. During the rehearsals, if you have written certain lines you did not feel right, we would go until you felt more natural. This film is widely helped. When you are the only writer, there is this danger from everyone who appears like you. This helped dismantle it.
How was it like a climb from short pants to length?
I think short films are the most difficult, because you learn everything with a little support. You do not take a salary, so you are doing other jobs on the side. Once I finished Red Hill, I wanted to make an advantage, because there was a lot that I wanted to look at, but I was told that I need to do another shortcut. When this shift was working well in festivals, I had already a draft of the fall, and I was determined to use this wave to move the feature forward. Once there was interest in short, I can put this scenario in front of people and say, “This is what I want to do after that.” If we look back, that was smart.
The biggest challenge was to find the right product. I was lucky to BBC We presented sixteen films, and we realized that we saw the cinema in similar ways. I am a big fan of Beijing Luch, and soon I thought this could succeed. This project has been widely helped, because they know how to produce something. We also got funding from Portugal, so it ended with a joint production. It was difficult, but the strategy was always to reach the next project while the other was in festivals and people were still interested.
Making a movie with a migrant worker in the central role in a moment when there is a lot of anti -immigrant speech in politics, it is completely loaded. What is your awareness of this political dimension?
When I was looking, I realized that many of the pickers were immigrants. Then this added layer of this work is invisible. I was in Scotland for 12 years, and during that time feelings were hostile to immigration. still. For me, it was important to show the work that was accomplished and not noticed. I think this happens a lot in terms of immigrant contributions to UK.
At the same time, I feel almost global. When the audience members speak with me, many of them can be associated with them without being immigrants. When you are a migrant and are exposed to the forces of new liberalism, you are more at risk, because you do not have social relationships. I think this is why the movie sometimes feels harsh. We do not know much about Aurora’s life because there may be very different versions of Aurora that led this week.
How was the film presented to the fans during the past few months?
Directly from this first show, it was amazing to see how people interact with them and bring their own stories. I had a picker who was present in shows, and who came to talk to me after that to thank me. Also, people who say “I work in a call center, but my life is like this.” This was really nice, because sometimes topics such as poverty and loneliness are disturbed with blame and autonomy, which are difficult to express, which we face alone.
To be a movie that puts these issues in the context … This is what I wanted to do, which is amazing, because this is what people take out of it. Of course, critical reception is great on a personal level, because it means that I can continue and make other movies. This is definitely my goal – I worked hard to reach this industry, I don’t want to go away!
On the fall, supported by BFI Film Industry Fund, in cinemas from March 7.