Mascha Schilinski’s hypnotic film about Germany, girlhood, and ghosts received a Jury Prize in Cannes in 2025.
Set over a century at a farmhouse in northern Germany, the film follows four girls spending their youth in the countryside: Alma (Hanna Heckt) at the start of the twentieth century, Erika (Lea Drinda) right after World War II, Angelika (Lena Urzendowsky) in East Germany in the 1980s, and Lenka (Laeni Geiseler) today. As well as the farmhouse connection, the girl’s stories are linked by their experiences and feelings.
Speaking about the making of the film, Mascha Schilinski recalled how she and cowriter Louise Peter first found themselves at the farm where story is set. By chance, they discovered a place where time seemed to have stood still: the house had been empty for 50 years, with everything where the last owners had left it. They found a group photograph taken in the farmyard, with three women looking straight at the camera. That look from the past became the starting point in the search for a film structure in which time was not linear but made up of co-existing layers.
The film will be screened in German with Russian subtitles.
Sound of Falling
Director: Mascha Schilinski
Germany, 2025. 149 min.
18+