Sound of Falling

"The past doesn't fade. It echoes."

2025 2h 28m DE

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 127

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Four adolescent girls each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century. Though separated by decades, resonances between their lives emerge: their desires and distress, secrets and truths, encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return.

“The past doesn't fade. It echoes.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Luise Heyer
Christa
Lena Urzendowsky
Angelika
Claudia Geisler-Bading
Irm
Lea Drinda
Erika
Hanna Heckt
Alma
Laeni Geiseler
Lenka
Florian Geißelmann
Rainer
Andreas Anke
Albat

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Mascha Schilinski
Writers: Louise Peter, Mascha Schilinski
Languages: German
Countries: Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Mascha Schilinski, shot by Fabian Gamper. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Fiedler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Evelyn Rack shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Luise Heyer and Lena Urzendowsky and Claudia Geisler-Bading carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The past doesn't fade. It echoes.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt28690468 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Mascha Schilinski directs. Fabian Gamper behind the camera. Michael Fiedler scores. Evelyn Rack cuts. Produced in Germany. Dialogue in German.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released last year.
2Directed by Mascha Schilinski, shot by Fabian Gamper. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Michael Fiedler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Evelyn Rack shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Luise Heyer and Lena Urzendowsky and Claudia Geisler-Bading carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The past doesn't fade. It echoes.".
7IMDB entry: tt28690468 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 12 themes, including "family", "woman director", "children's story", "connected".

The technical file

Cinematography: Fabian Gamper
Original score: Michael Fiedler
Editing: Evelyn Rack
Production design: Cosima Vellenzer
Costume design: Sabrina Krämer
Makeup / hair: Dana Bieler
Sound: Billie Mind
Runtime: 148 min · 2h 28m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: DE
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Sound of Falling (2025)

Awards

German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress
German Film Award for Best Editing
German Film Award for Best Direction
German Film Award for Best Sound Design
German Film Award for Best Cinematography
Jury Prize
Meeting Point Europe Award
German Film Award for Best Costume Design
German Film Award Best Production Design
German Film Award for Best Makeup Image

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Mascha Schilinski

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-08-15
This is some farmhouse! It seems to go on forever and it provides quite an effective location for this tale of four generations of the same family as they deal with life, love and tragedy across the best part of a century. Tempered with some mischief from time to time, this is not a cheery film to watch, indeed the escapades of turn of the (20th) century "Alma"; "Erika" whose story is set against the background of the Second World War; "Angelika" as the nineteen-eighties get up and running before finally "Lenka" in 2025 - at various stages of their lives, rarely delivers us anything to put a smile on their or our faces. What it does do, though, is allow us to take a grandstand seat and observe just how society, attitudes and even technology evolved as the candle gave way to electricity; the horse to the car and the women begin to take a great deal more control over their futures and their choices by the fourth iteration than they did at the first. Their stories are interwoven so it's not just a straightforward chronology of who did what to whom, when and where - and that's where I felt a little of the intrigue lay. The performances from the younger children especially Hannah Heckt's "Alma" and Filip Schnack's "Fritz" are really quite engaging as is the characterful one of Laeni Geiseler's "Lenka" and by simply sitting and watching the intimate photography intrude - but rarely pruriently - into their daily grinds, struggles and occasionally joy too this proves to be a remarkably easy thing to appreciate. Some of the arcs are complete, some are not and I think that quite clevery suggests an element of continuity to the processes of living and by the end I couldn't help but wonder if we were to make another version featuring the next four generations, what that might look like in 2125? It can be a little sluggish at times, but if you can watch it in the cinema then it sort of washes over you in quite a compelling fashion; it looks stylish and there is certainly some comment contained within it's frames that provokes some thinking.

Production companies

Who made it

Studio Zentral
DE
Das kleine Fernsehspiel
DE

Key crew

First Assistant DirectorOliver Grüttner
InternMarie Anhut
Post Production SupervisorArne Möller
VFX SupervisorJan Joost Verhoef
Manager of OperationsGabriele Hentschel
Additional CameraLena Krenz
First Assistant CameraLisa Bülow
First Assistant CameraJohannes Jung
First Assistant CameraChristian Öhl
Second Assistant CameraSophie Heyer
Data WranglerMinh Hoang Nguyen
Still PhotographerKirstin Schmitt
Assistant Costume DesignerElla Imig
Set CostumerMedea Karnowski
Set CostumerAnna Sander
Set CostumerElisa Bernhard
Set CostumerOlivier Mohrińge
CostumerSophie Maag
Key GripOliver Geissler
Best Boy Lighting TechnicianLuc Brocker
Lighting TechnicianFrançois Everwyn
Lighting TechnicianAtilla Opel
Lighting TechnicianArne Weiß
Makeup & HairDana Bieler

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

family
woman director
children's story
connected
1940s
1980s
traumatic childhood
1910s
rural
intergenerational trauma
2020s
non-linear narrative

Release history · US

When it landed

Premiere2025-10-01· New York Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-11· Hamptons International Film Festival / Mill Valley Film Festival / IFFBoston Fall Focus
Premiere2025-10-16· New Hampshire Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-18· Chicago International Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-23· AFI Fest / Montclair Film Festival / Virginia Film Festival
Premiere2025-11-01· Denver Film Festival
Premiere2026-01-03· Palm Springs International Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-19· Philadelphia Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-15· Orcas Island Film Festival
Premiere2025-10-20· Vermont International Film Festival