By Rafa Sales Ross

Amid the labyrinthine shelves of an Edinburgh fulfillment center, a lone picker scans a variety of items ranging from sex toys to office knickknacks. The picker is Aurora (Joana Santos), a Portuguese immigrant whose difficult transition to life in Scotland is chronicled at length in Laura Carreira’s feature debut, “On Falling.”

World premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, then main competition in San Sebastián, “On Falling” builds on issues of the mental toll of labor that Carreira previously explored in the award-winning short films “Red Hill” and “The Shift.” “Coming to Scotland and starting my first job was so instrumental in introducing me to the field. It was such a shock and completely changed the way I saw the world from that moment on. I’m still processing it now,” Carreira told Variety.

"I think our world could be a lot more interesting and inventive if we didn't just succumb to living for our jobs," she continued. "I think all of my films come from this frustration. I think the increase in our fears and a general difficulty in finding our own purpose and meaning comes from this limitation, especially since most of us have to work so hard to get by."