A SCOTTISH-BASED filmmaker has won one of the top prizes at the London Film Festival with her debut feature highlighting the struggles of an immigrant living in the UK.
Writer and director Laura Carreira, who lives in Edinburgh, won the Sutherland Award for best first feature as the judges described her film On Falling as a “masterful” telling of lived experiences.
The film follows the story of a young Portuguese immigrant struggling to make ends meet after starting a new life in Edinburgh.
It focuses on the experiences of Aurora, who has a low-paid job as a “picker” in a warehouse and struggles with social isolation as she finds it difficult to make friends at work.
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On Falling is expected to be released in cinemas early next year and is partly influenced by Carreira’s own experiences of when she moved to Edinburgh from Portugal to study film when she was 18.
Carreira drew inspiration for the film from her own financial struggles when she was studying film at Edinburgh College of Art.
She used to juggle working at the Jenners department store cafe on Princes Street and as a carer in the Scottish capital.
The filmmaker also interviewed warehouse pickers in Scotland to help her inspiration with Aurora’s story.
“I’m so honoured to receive the Sutherland Award for On Falling and for our film to join the long list of winners, which includes some of my favourite films and most important cinema reference points,” she said.
“This award is shared with our incredible cast and crew who brought this film to life. We hope it speaks to the relentless and dehumanising growth of neoliberalism while reminding us that human nature will keep resisting. We offer our film in solidarity.”
The 30-year-old's film, which she made in Edinburgh and Glasgow, made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and she won the best director prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival when it made its European premiere.
The Sutherland Award jury hailed On Falling as “a powerful, mesmerising and bold first feature.”
“On Falling is a richly-layered portrait of a world governed by corporate profit motive, as seen through the story of an immigrant woman whose alienation we feel deeply, told with masterful cinematic precision and understated, lived in performances,” the judges said.
“A powerful, mesmerising and bold first feature. Congratulations to Laura Carreira. We look forward to seeing where her cinematic journey goes next.”
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