Sound of Falling

A history of the 20th century told through the inner monologues of four teenage girls — a film often compared to Tarkovsky, Fellini, and Bergman.

On the same old farm in Altmark, across different eras — from World War I to the present day — live Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka. The four heroines will never meet one another, yet each will experience her first sexual awakening, the sudden death of a loved one, acute loneliness, and fear of the future.

What we see is an alternative version of Germany’s 20th-century history, shown through the eyes of adolescent girls (perhaps even the history of all of Europe, or the world at large). Silent witnesses, they endure tragedy unseen by adults and men — in a world shaped by wars, conflicts, violence, and pain. And yet their gaze alone offers hope for a different ethics, one opposed to that embraced by the rest of the world.

— Anton Dolin