Sound of Falling
Germany have become an increasingly important player in international co-productions in recent years, offering subsidies and funding to a range of international co-productions – from The Seed of the Sacred Fig to Aquaman: Lost Kingdom – but nearly a decade has passed since its last national entry was selected for the Palme d’Or competition. Now, Berlin-based director Mascha Schilinski follows in Maren Ade’s footsteps with her second feature Sound of Falling (In die Sonne schauen).
In elliptical fashion, the film follows four generations of women passing through the same farm, all bound to one another in ways perhaps only an uninvolved viewer can fully perceive. What they most definitely share is that, in this family, there are things one simply doesn’t talk about. As the girls bear witness to all kinds of atrocities and are left to make sense of it alone, fear, guilt and shame begin to manifest through magical thinking: because Alma is told her namesake “died in her sleep”, the young girl comes to believe the same will happen to her if she closes her eyes at night. Nearly a century later, Lenka is convinced she could have prevented her sister’s death – if only she had chosen a different ice cream that day.
The girls’ curious, at times strange fascination with their own bodies – their limitations, how they are perceived by others, and whether they truly belong to them – is captured through cinematography that extends beyond traditional point-of-view shots. The camera becomes a stand-in for the characters’ eyes, often subject to the same physical constraints as someone peeking through a keyhole. Whether through a droning, rudimentary score or the way sounds drift in and out of focus, the film’s acoustics underscore the subjectivity of attention – or inattention – that these fleeting moments of life evoke.
A particularly smart decision lies in the casting of talented yet relatively nondescript actors. None of the names break the illusion of watching a century of German history unfold, with the most familiar faces personifying the two eras closest to the audience’s own lifespan.
There is a lull in the middle, as 150 minutes of someone else’s largely uncommented family album begins to lose its initial sense of novelty. Yet the final chapter rewards the viewer’s patience, revealing fragments of information that reframe earlier scenes in a different light and offer insight into some of the images that continue to haunt both characters and audience alike.
With its cool, aloof style faintly echoing the work of Michael Haneke, Sound of Falling captures generational trauma in deeply reverberating fashion. But a glimmer of hope pierces the veil of seclusion: the inability to express love does not negate its presence.
Selina Sondermann
Sound of Falling is released on 14th May 2025.
Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.
Watch the trailer for Sound of Falling here:
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