Laura Carreira & Jack Thomas-O’Brien On The Strong Collaboration Behind Their Political TIFF Debut ‘On Falling’

Debuting tomorrow at TIFF before heading for competition slots at San Sebastian and London, Laura Carreira’s On Falling looks set to be the breakout British title from this year’s festival circuit.

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Recent examples include Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun and Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean . And Carreira’s On Falling , the latest feature from Sixteen Films, depicts an equally dark and politically driven slice of contemporary society. The film follows Aurora, a young Portuguese woman who struggles to make ends meet across one week in her adopted home of Glasgow, Scotland. Long days spent grabbing packages off shelves for an anonymous e-commerce giant barely cover the bills and leave her exhausted and desperate for something more.

Per the synopsis: Aurora seeks to resist the loneliness, alienation, and ensuing small talk that begin to threaten her sense of self. Set against a landscape dominated by an algorithm-driven gig economy, designed to keep us apart.

On Falling marks Carreira’s feature film debut. The Portuguese-born filmmaker is best known for her shorts The Shift , which debuted at Venice, and Red Hill , a 2019 BAFTA Scotland nominee. The film, alongside Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Harvest , is also one of the first features from the post-Ken Loach era at Sixteen Films. Jack Thomas-O’Brien, now a lead producer at the company, produced the pic alongside the Portuguese-based BRO Cinema. Backers include BBC Film, BFI, and Screen Scotland. Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas is handling sales.

“This process has taken us four years. That feels slow but for lots of other people that’s quite fast,” Thomas-O’Brien said of the film’s journey to the big screen. “Thankfully we’ve not had any sort of crazy crises, which I think speaks to the strength of Laura and my relationship.”

Below, Carreira and Thomas-O’Brien dig into how they mounted their debut feature, how their collaboration began, and the nuances of producing good political cinema.

TIFF runs from September 6 – 15.

DEADLINE: Laura, you’re from Portugal? How did you end up here making this film?

LAURA CARREIRA: I ask myself that every day. Yes, I’m from Portugal. I studied cinema in Lisbon. When I was a teenager, Portugal was going through a big economic crisis and the prospects of developing a filmmaking career weren’t great. So one of my teachers said I should check out this film directing course at Edinburgh College of Art. I was 18 when I moved to Scotland, so it was quite a specific time in my life. I was getting my first job, studying film trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. And, at some point, I just never left.

DEADLINE: How did you two meet?

JACK THOMAS-O’BRIEN: We met on Zoom. It was the pandemic and I was starting to look for the first projects I would make as a producer at Sixteen Films. We knew that Ken [Loach] was making his last film, so we were thinking about what was next. Laura actually reached out on Twitter. That makes our talent-spotting process look chaotic but sometimes it is, but it works. Although this isn’t a sign for everyone to reach out to me on Twitter. Laura had already been in touch with BBC Film. I was also talking with BBC Film about a couple of things, so coincidentally heard about Laura. She had just finished making her short The Shift , which was debuting at Venice.

CARREIRA: BBC Film also helped me because I think a day after I messaged you on Twitter, they said you should get in touch with a producer called Jack. I said, Ok, I did that yesterday. So it all worked out.

DEADLINE: Laura, when you reached out did you already have the idea for On Falling ?

CARREIRA: Yeah, I had a first draft.

THOMAS-O’BRIEN: A really good first draft.

CARREIRA: So I finished my short during the pandemic. I wasn’t sure when the world would restart again, so I took the time to write my first feature. I didn’t have a proper producer or any support, but I thought I’d just put this idea down on paper. It was a continuation of themes from my short, so I knew I would be writing about financial vulnerability and our relationship to work. Those are two really important subjects for me, but as I started writing it evolved to explore not just our relationship to work but the consequences of this type of work on an individual.

DEADLINE: I know Jack and Sixteen Films obviously have a track record of producing politically and philosophically rich films. Laura, where does your political background come from?

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CARREIRA: I guess I became preoccupied with the theme of work when I got my first job in Scotland. I was excited about the idea of getting my first job and being financially independent. And then I got my first job and that quickly changed. It made the future look a lot scarier. It made me look at the people around me and think about how we’re all dedicating so much of our lives to work, and I don’t entirely understand why. I don’t think it has to be that way. And that shock was compounded by the controlling dynamics in the workplace. I really struggled with that. Film is a really good medium to try and interrogate this perspective a little more. My parents are also quite left-wing, so they definitely influenced how I see the world.

DEADLINE: Where did the title ‘ On Falling ‘ come from?

CARREIRA: I really struggled with the title. We had a few different ones that I hated. And then a friend of mine suggested On Falling . He had sort of described the film when he read the script as a constant descent. And I could see that. This character is almost losing solid ground and trying to stand back up again.

THOMAS-O’BRIEN: The name also captured a little bit of ambiguity as well. It sort of changes expectations as to what’s gonna come up. It’s also poetic. So that was kind of how it came about. And it’s just stuck because actually you don’t want to define anything too clearly, especially with a film like this, which is such a direct, intimate journey. It’s about much more than just working in a warehouse.

DEADLINE: Speaking of ambiguity, Jack, as a producer, how do you shepherd a project like this to make sure it doesn’t become didactic?

THOMAS-O’BRIEN: I don’t really think about that, to be honest. It’s up to the director. It’s all about protecting the director’s voice and protecting the film they want to make because as soon as you start overanalyzing the detail and demanding that things get said, you just get into this mishmash of different voices in the room and you end up with a film that feels all over the place. I think it’s worth removing the context of Ken Loach. He’s an incredible, political filmmaker who has been great to work with. We’ve had an amazing time. But we also want to make films that are director-led with filmmakers who have their own unique voice and way of storytelling. On Falling is not like a Ken Loach film. It speaks about similar subject matter, but it’s totally Laura’s film, and we’ve made sure to protect that. I’m not against telling a really didactic story that is on the nose about its politics. But that’s not necessarily the film Laura wanted to make with On Falling .

DEADLINE: Jack, it’s pretty tough out there for a first-time British producer. How was this process for you? Was it more difficult than you expected?

THOMAS-O’BRIEN: It’s difficult to sum that up because this process has taken us four years. That feels slow but for lots of other people that’s quite fast. Laura’s been working on this for longer than that and before I was on the project  Laura had a Portuguese producer, Bro Cinema, who have been great partners and helped us raise the first little chunk of money. And then Goodfellas, who are selling the film, came on really early and made a commitment to the project and Laura. So having those two collaborators made the process a lot easier, and then eventually we had brilliant support from the BFI, BBC, and Screen Scotland. Thankfully we’ve not had any sort of crazy crises, which I think speaks to the strength of Laura and my relationship. We’ve had a really strong working relationship and we talk about everything. That’s how you have to navigate things. My philosophy is the director does the directing, and the producer does the producing. If you keep in your own lanes and communicate well, it avoids a lot of difficult things.

DEADLINE: How long did you shoot and how was that process? The film manages to avoid looking like a soap opera, which is the one criticism often leveled at debut British films.

CARREIRA: We shot for five weeks and we used an Arri. I would give a lot of credit to Karl Kürten, our DoP. He worked on my two shorts and we tried to be very mindful about the visual choices we made. We made a sort of visual treatment to help guide us. A big part of it was trying to bring the character’s psychological state to the images, trying to convey the isolation and those little moments of anxiety.

DEADLINE: Joana Santos, your main actress, she’s fantastic. Where did you find her?

CARREIRA: We did a really big casting call in Portugal and we saw something like 500 tapes of both professional actresses and non-professional actresses. There were a lot of really good actresses, but I think the moment we saw Joanna’s self-tape tape we knew. There was just something in her expression. It was strange because her face wasn’t saying much but you could feel what she was communicating through her expressions.

DEADLINE: Goodfellas is selling the film. What would be the ideal destination for this film for you both?

CARREIRA: Personally, as a film fan, I’d love to have it in cinemas. I love going to the cinema and I’d love people to see this in a collective way. But obviously, I’d also love as many people as possible to see the film.

THOMAS-O’BRIEN: It’s funny with Ken Loach’s films I’ve always loved that they’ll eventually end up on TV because then millions of people can watch them. But I think with a film like this, every part of the production is conducive to seeing it on the big screen. I think with this you want the impact of the big screen. This is a small film about an intimate subject but it should also feel like a big experience. And I think that’s why we’d want it to be in cinemas.

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