The farmhouse in Northwest Germany is a setting for Sound of Falling, a film consisting of the point of views of 4 women through multiple generations. with a jumbled timeline, Mascha Schillinski explores the lives of young women and their surroundings. Layered, highly cinematic images have cumulative effects, as they are imbued with secret meanings and intimate knowledges.
There's Alma, a preteen girl in a large household in the turn of the century. Her encounter with death in the family and her obsession with it are established through her brief voiceover, as we go back to her from time to time. There's Angelika, a teen girl in the 80s, testing out her boundaries as she senses male gazes from her immediate and distant male family members. Then there's Lenka, a young girl in the present day, imitating an older, extroverted girl, Kaya, from the village.
Florian Gamper's full frame cinematography is at once ethereal and dreamlike, showing the women's fears and desires across time and space. Sound of Falling deals with dark subjects - death, suffering, incest, hierarchy and male gaze, but Schillinski and co-writer Luise Peter at the helm, the film deals with it with such nuance and vivid visual details, the film transcends the mere narrative storytelling about generational trauma.
