Laura Carreira’s impressive debut drama sees a quietly excellent Joana Santos endure dehumanising work conditions while looking for a way out

The human cost of the online convenience shopping revolution is, arguably, still to be properly addressed in cinema or any other art form. Chloé Zhao’s 2020 Oscar winner Nomadland was, rightly or wrongly, criticised in some quarters for going easy on working conditions in the Amazon warehouse where she was allowed to film. This outstanding debut feature from the Scotland-based Portuguese film-maker Laura Carreira returns us to the subject, reminding us that the business of choosing items in the gigantic and ironically named “fulfilment centre” is not done by robots, but stressed human beings with the Steinbeckian job description of “pickers”, rushing along vast warehouse shelves, their work rate ruthlessly assessed by digital handsets. (It reminded me of the excellent Sorry We Missed You by Ken Loach, whose production company Sixteen Films has also brought out this film.)

It does not look as if Carreira has shot in a real warehouse, but the film looks convincing enough as her camera keeps very tight into the workers and their field of vision as they roam retail warehouse corridors. Portuguese screen star Joana Santos gives a quietly excellent performance as Aurora, an exploited worker in a fulfilment centre in Scotland. She gets a lift to and from work with a Portuguese colleague who has to gently remind her to contribute to the petrol. She works very hard, and is rewarded with a humiliating and demeaning little prize: a chocolate bar which the manager beamingly tells her to choose from a box on his desk.