Get the latest gossip
We May Have Already Seen the Best Film at Cannes This Year
The ambitious Sound of Falling kicks off the competition by setting a high water mark that will be hard for another film to reach.
Sound of Falling, the second film from Berlin-born writer-director Mascha Schilinski, could be described as a multi-voiced account of the secret history of women on a farm in the Altmark, a rural part of Germany flanked by the Elbe. Fittingly, for a work about perspectives left out of the official record, Schilinski frequently makes you feel like she is carving out a new film language with Sound of Falling, one that’s impressionistic and sensual, but also so grounded in the experiences of its girls that it’s like being dropped directly into their heads. These episodes aren’t only defined by trauma, but also yearning, wonder, wistfulness, and joy; Sound of Falling ’s tone can veer from the dreamy to the painfully sharp, its protagonists sometimes speaking in voiceover and other times turning the narration over to side characters.
Or read this on VULTURE