Sound Of Falling – Review

Cert – 18, Run-time – 2 hours 35 minutes, Director – Mascha Schilinski

Four generations of women are haunted by isolation and secrets in the walls of the same farmhouse.

Separated by 110 years the four women, each at different stages of their lives, at the centre of Sound Of Falling constantly appear to be on the verge of a shudder. Not from ghosts trapped in the walls of the farmhouse they all live in but from the lingering traumas they carry. Each witness veiled secrets through the cracks in the doors, the changing face of each room; made to feel more isolated from the family and world around them.

Mascha Schilinski’s camera intimately glides through the figures in each scene. Getting close up to the emotion and stillness in each moment without feeling invasive or manipulative. It’s observant – perhaps the only ghost present in the film. The camera moves subtly and brings a lot to our connection with the increasingly isolated characters.

This is a film that’s a quiet slow-burn without a meditative feeling. We see the leads (Hanna Hekt as 1910s 7-year-old Alma, Lea Drinda and Lea Urzendowsky as 1940s and 80s teenagers Erika and Angelika and Laeni Geisler as modern day adult Lenka) carrying their emotions, at different stages of expressing and understanding. Yet, often they’re held in the eyes, let out in glances and looks away; moments alone. Urzendowsky particularly gives a standout performance as a teenager seemingly on the edges of everything. Looking for escape amongst judgement and presumptions from family about her sexual activity.

Secrets, intimacy and judgment play a factor in all the lives we see playing out. Blending together both thematically and in the editing, without feeling overly busy or jumpy – helped by the pacing. With the slow way in which things unfold, and sometimes the ways in which they do, Sound Of Falling certainly won’t be for everyone, but there’s a quietly engaging film here that moves with as much effect and subtlety as Schilinski’s camera. Getting to the core of the minds and feelings of the leads as they break down the walls of both the home they share over more than a century, and the faces around them. This is a film that wears a haunted weight and the only present ghost appears to be an observant, unobtrusive camera.

A quiet, slow-burn drama that cuts to the core of the weighted feelings of the four leads as they uncover secrets around them. Schilinski’s camera subtly weaves through isolation and trauma with great effect.