Sound of Falling (2025) – Review

Quick Thoughts

• Director and co-writer Mascha Schilinski has crafted an intimate and haunting film.
• The film is loaded with memorable moments that are beautifully filmed by cinematographer Fabian Gamper.
• It makes me happy knowing that Schilinski created the film’s soundscape by first asking herself “what does a black hole sound like?”
• Sound of Falling is a good title, but I prefer the original title more. The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue, is neat.
• It’s wild that the film was shot in 33 days. There’s an incredible amount of coverage.

Shot in 33 days, in the Altmark region of northern Germany, Sound of Falling is a sensory-blasting experience crafted by director Mascha Schilinski. She and co-writer Louise Peter spent years writing, researching and location scouting to create a “stream of images from all of the people who lived in this same place.” While there is a connected storyline, the nonlinear film relies on snippets of memories that showcase a myriad of memorable moments involving suicide, belly button sweat, and limb loss. 

The film opens with a teenager named Erika (Lea Drinda) using crutches to walk through the hallways of a spacious farmhouse. At first, you think she’s had a leg amputated, but she has it tied up so she can understand the sensation of missing a leg (it’s wild). She unbinds her leg and sneaks into a room occupied by her uncle Fritz (Martin Rother), a bedridden amputee who forcefully had his leg cut off to avoid being drafted into World War 1(we learn this later). It’s hot in the home, and Erika watches drops of sweat make their way to his belly button. In an unexpected twist, Erika sticks her finger into his belly button and tastes the belly button sweat. After tasting the sweat, she runs down to help her brother in the courtyard, who had been yelling her name during her sweat-tasting dalliance. The scene ends with Fritz watching her through his bedroom window as she gets slapped by her annoyed father. 

From there, we follow Erika, Alma (Hanna Hekt), Angelika (Lena Urzendowsky), and Lenka (Laeni Geiseler), whose stories take place in the same farmhouse. The location stays the same, but the characters come and go as the decades roll on (1910s, 1940s, 1980s, 2020s). The house (and its ghosts) observe these women as they deal with trauma, sexual awakenings, painful falls, terrible uncles, suicidal thoughts, blurry photos, and shoeless runs through wheat fields that result in dozens of open wounds. 

The first image that Schilinski had in mind before writing the screenplay was of someone looking into the sun and closing their eyes, and “there’s this orange, wavy flickering thing, a pre-ancestor picture.” It’s admirable that Schilinski crafted a film that sets out to recreate an orange, wavy-flickering thing. The most admirable aspects of Sound of Falling are the little details that make the film feel real and lived in. Whether it’s the way a grandma’s hand skin stays in place when squeezed, or how a mom winks at her children to tell them she loves them. 

The voyeuristic cinematography by Fabian Gamper is outstanding. The 1.37:1 (4:3) aspect ratio was a nice choice as it adds a claustrophobic vibe to the sprawling farmhouse. Gamper used the lightweight ARRI Alexa Mini and Sony FX6 cameras to stay mobile, which allowed the cameras to act like ghosts watching the goings-on of the household. The Sony FX6 is also ideal for low-light situations, this was handy in the dark barns and candlelit rooms. There are some beautiful visuals in The Sound of Falling, and it’s neat knowing that the filmmakers were deeply influenced by photographer Francesca Woodman.

Final thoughts –Sound of Falling is expertly crafted and will linger in your memory.