A One Mann’s Movies review of “Sound of Falling” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 3*, ’15’).
Original title: In die Sonne schauen
My first LFF screening for 2025, during the pre-festival “press week” of screenings, is the German entry for the International Film Oscar, “Sound of Falling”.
When I stroll around the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, the art there connects with me in many different ways. I can marvel in the beauty of a Turner, be transported by the meaning behind a Van Gogh and be mysteriously moved – against my better judgement – by more modern, abstract art. But for the multiple galleries filled with the huge, sombre paintings of religious scenes, these paintings don’t really do it for me in the same way. But that doesn’t mean to say that I can’t be impressed by the quality of the artistry.
I have a similar feeling for “Sound of Falling”. The film is undoubtedly impressive as a piece of movie-making art: the cinematography, the acting and particularly the sound design are at times breath-taking. But overall as a watchable movie, it’s two-and-a-half-hours of confusing timelines, red-herrings and subtitles that I personally found to be an emotionally exhausting slog.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
A remote farm in what is now East Germany has seen stress and trauma for generations of woman over the decades.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This film has not yet been rated by the BBFC, but I would expect it to be a ’15’ for scenes of violence – both physical and implied sexual – and a strong theme of suicide. The film came with the following trigger warning from the BFI: “Contains scenes of graphic violence or injury, harm towards children, incest, sexual assault and suicide.”)
Talent:
Starring: Hanna Heckt, Lena Urzendowsky, Susanne Wuest, Luise Heyer, Florian Geißelmann, Gode Benedix, Lea Drinda, Filip Schnack, Konstantin Lindhorst, Martin Rother, Luzia Oppermann, Greta Krämer.
Directed by: Mascha Schilinski.
Written by: Louise Peter & Mascha Schilinski.
Running Time: 2h 29m.
Summary:
Positives:
- An intriguing soundscape that is constantly surprising you.
- Some truly memorable imagery.
- Strong acting performances from the female ensemble.
- (In parts) an intriguing story that reveals itself in stages through flashback.
Negatives:
- A truly baffling timeline, constantly hopping between four different timelines from the early 20th century to modern times.
- Themes that some viewers may find disturbing: a film that makes you feel like you’ve been put through a wringer.
Full Review of “Sound of Falling”:
OK… where the f*** are we now?
For a film that I will justly praise (below) for having extraordinary imagery, the movie is extraordinarily frustrating to watch. We eventually learn that we are watching four separate occupants of the same German farmhouse… a similar concept to that of the Tom Hanks/Robin Wright film “Here” from earlier this year, but with a rather more fluid point of view.
But my problem was that we hop around between those timelines in such a random way that I found it almost impossible to piece together what was going on and why. One minute a woman is lighting an oil lamp and then in the next another is waving an iPhone around. For the love of God, give my poor brain a rest: I in no way consider myself a dunce, but about half way through this thing I was beginning to feel like one.
Delicious Cinematography and Sound Design.
The film really works best for me in its ‘oldest’ incantation, set – I would estimate – in or around the year 1910. We see these scenes through the sweet and innocent eyes of young Alma (Hanna Heckt). The costume, lighting, production design and cinematography combine to make these some of the most striking images you are ever likely to see on the cinema screen in 2025 (or, more probably, 2026 when this gets a general release). At times I was reminded of Vermeer paintings in the way that one of the characters would suddenly stop and stare directly at the camera.
For a film that has “Sound” in the title (albeit not in the German original which translates to “Looking into the Sun”), the sound design is a key talking point. This is a film (like “Sound of Metal” and “The Zone of Interest“) where the sound design hits you hard between the ears. In an opening scene where a wilfully rebellious Angelika (played by Lena Urzendowsky) receives a vicious slap from her father, the slap sounds like a pistol shot before the sound muffles and distorts into a roaring, eerie cacophony over the opening title. This is a film that I can well see being nominated for the ‘Sound’ Academy Award.
Disturbing concepts.
What makes this film particularly hard work are some of the concepts involved. I scribble notes during these LFF showings (so I can try to recall which film is which!) and in the middle of this film – after a memorable scene involving a combine harvester and a dead deer – I scribbled “Obsession with death”. For that is the pervading mood that washed over me: if we are not imagining suicide then we are actually seeing it, interspersed with other death and dismemberment!
Some of these elements are (cleverly) dropped in progressively to intrigue the viewer: HOW did young Fritz (Filip Schnack) come to lose his leg? Then after we learn the shocking truth to that, the question turns to “BUT WHY ON EARTH?”. And only later still does the penny drop.
Other elements though are less well explained. A repeated image of an eel’s teeth being driven into the flesh of a hand is baffling. A constantly recurring word – “warm” – crops up multiple times: most notably when a woman holds her husband’s penis to her cheek!
Sexual shenanigans.
There are also disturbing sexual elements within the piece that may be triggering. Aside from the general uncomfortable lechery shown to the underage Angelika and Lenka, there is a general theme of incest involved. This is most uncomfortably visible not only in the unhealthy sexual fascination Erika (Lea Drinda) has with the (now grown) Uncle Fritz (Martin Rother) but also with the abuse suffered by Angelika (Lena Urzendowsky) from her odious Uncle Uwe (Konstantin Lindhorst), while her cousin Rainer (Florian Geisselmann) watches on with his own designs on Angelika.
But this casual misogyny is as nothing to the terrifying fate of woman like Trudi (Luzia Oppermann), sold as ‘maids’ to these farming communities, where in some cases death is preferable to the fate that awaits them.
Triggers.
As the blurb advises, this film will be potentially triggering for anyone with an association with suicide and with experience of sexual exploitation or violence.
Summary Thoughts:
This is a tricky one to rate, since on the one hand I thought it was, in parts, brilliant and I suspect that images from it will keep coming back into my head for months to come. But at the same time, it was overly hard work as a viewer to make head or tail of it. At times, I felt I needed to reach for the “p-word” (pretentious), since it personally over-stepped the mark on a number of occasions.
This is one that might require a rewatch since, armed with a better concept for how the intertwined tales evolved, I might get a lot more out of in from a second watch. If so, I reserve the right to revisit this review!
Tickets for the London Film Festival showings on the 11th and 12th October are currently sold out, but here is the booking web site to check for returns or other showings.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICfih8MIob8.
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