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Sound of Falling

Play trailer 1:42 Poster for Sound of Falling Now Playing 2h 29m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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95% Tomatometer 61 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Over the course of a century, as four girls from different time periods experience their youth on a German farm, their lives become intertwined until time seems to dissolve.
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Sound of Falling

Sound of Falling

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Critics Consensus

Exquisitely well-crafted and laced with mordant humor, Sound of Falling is a haunting generational drama that announces Mascha Schillinski as a world-class directorial talent.

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Critics Reviews

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Thelma Adams AARP Movies for Grownups 4d
5/5
Haunting images layer the past and the present over the course of the film, making quiet connections that transport the audience to other worlds and times and, ultimately, to mortality. Go to Full Review
Peter Travers The Travers Take Jan 17
3.5/4
One thing is for sure about this century-spanning story about the dangers faced by young women trying to negotiate a safe space in a world of men—you’ll never forget it. Go to Full Review
Kyle Smith Wall Street Journal Jan 17
The film is, in a sense, a necrology that takes a bleak and unsentimental stance on human suffering. Its effects are woozily disorienting, as though we’re all just ghosts drifting through spaces occupied by much more lasting things such as houses. Go to Full Review
Al Alexander Movies Thru the Spectrum 2d
B-
Despite its numerous flaws, "Sound of Falling" remains a film richly deserving of making the Oscar shortlist, even if it doesn’t always fully and meaningfully connect. Go to Full Review
Holly Hazelwood Spectrum Culture 6d
In spite of the shadows that lurk in this farmstead, Sound of Falling could convince you to brave a dose of that darkness just to forge your own memories there. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Stephen C @bob25009 Jan 21 The worldwide gross is $4,463,155.00. See more Miloslav C @Milovkino Dec 1 The film shows us several generations of women who grew up in the same house but in different eras. It begins in the 1910s — and in a rather grim fashion, almost like American caricatures of European cinema. In sepia tones, in a large gloomy house, a little blonde girl grows up surrounded by her siblings. From time to time someone dies of illness or despair. One day, in a photograph — in that same cursed sepia — she notices a girl who looks exactly like herself. She’s told that she once had a sister like that, but she died in her sleep. After this, the girl can’t fall asleep for months — she’s terrified the same thing will happen to her. The film is largely about death, but even more about a life that resembles death. What separates the girl from the one in the photo? What separates the living from the dead? The line is incredibly thin: one moment you’re breathing, and the next you’re not. Flies gather on both just the same. What distinguishes the living from the dead? A heartbeat? Breath? Movement? Feeling? But what if you feel anything except what you want to feel? The heroines of the "first generation" have hardly the luxury of feeling what they wish — their desires matter to no one. So can that even be called life? And it’s not just about women — the young uncle of the protagonist is in a similar situation: older relatives cut off his leg so he wouldn’t be taken to war. He didn’t want to lose his leg, but no one asked him. If the state claimed him, the family reasoned, then better he belong to them. The one-legged young man is put on the same footing as the women — now he too is forever chained to the home and the family, until death parts them. But is that life? Time passes, sepia gives way to color — though still a mottled, uneven one. The lives of the women change little by little as well. Their behavior does too. Strange impulses appear, things not accounted for by the rules. A woman suddenly hurts herself for no clear reason; another suddenly offers her body to a married uncle she doesn’t even particularly like — the men are puzzled: what’s gotten into these women? They’re acting crazy! But when you look closer, you begin to understand what director Masha Shilinski is trying to show. The "irrational" actions of her heroines are their rebellion — their struggle for the right to control their own bodies. Even if it hurts — at least it’s by their own will. To feel what you yourself choose — that, in her view, is what life truly is. And yes, there is more and more color in the film, just as there is more freedom for the women, and the difference between life and death becomes ever clearer. The final point — though perhaps not the final conclusion — can be seen as the story of the director herself, who releases a film about women, their lives and deaths, and now aims for high honors. See more Xenia T Nov 14 2:30hr shitload under the name of creativity. Disgusting movie. See more Read all reviews
Sound of Falling

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Movie Info

Synopsis Over the course of a century, as four girls from different time periods experience their youth on a German farm, their lives become intertwined until time seems to dissolve.
Director
Mascha Schilinski
Producer
Lucas Schmidt, Lasse Scharpen
Screenwriter
Mascha Schilinski, Louise Peter, Louise Peter, Mascha Schilinski
Distributor
MUBI
Production Co
ZDF, Studio Zentral
Genre
Drama
Original Language
German
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 16, 2026, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA)
$30.9K
Runtime
2h 29m
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