A quiet farm. Four generations of young women. Sound of Falling, written and directed by Mascha Schilinski, is a daring new drama that spans more than one lifetime to expose how the ghosts of the past echo through time.
With a cast led by Hanna Heckt, Lena Urzendowsky, Laeni Geiseler, Susanne Wüst, Luise Heyer and Lea Drinda, the film chronicles lives shaped, and sometimes destroyed, by abuse, secrets and inherited pain.
Sound of Falling world premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the festival’s Jury Prize. It was selected as Germany’s entry for Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards
Mubi is slated to release it in theaters in the US & Canada January 16, 2026 and in the UK & Ireland March 6.
In the film, four girls, Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka, each spend their youth on the same farm in northern Germany. As the home evolves over a century, echoes of the past linger in its walls. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other.
Their stories take place across history: just before World War I, at the end of World War II, during East Germany in the 1980s, and in the early 21st century. As generations pass, patterns of abuse, assault, incest, and trauma persist – and the invisible scars of the past resurface in ways the survivors can neither forget nor escape.
Variety in their review called the film ‘exquisite, praising its ambition, nuance, and the careful craft of direction and cinematography, writing, “No finer point of craft, performance or poetic nuance has been rushed or neglected in a film that ultimately sounds a warning against the dimming or blunting or de-specification of memory — not just for oneself, but for communities or lineages with more shared stories than they might think, but an inclination to clam up and carry on.”
Watch the official trailer for Sound of Falling above.
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