‘Sound Of Falling' Filmmaker Mascha Schilinski On Origins Of Her Generational-Trauma Epic

Yahoo

15-05-2025

Despite a small turnout by press this morning for the first feature press conference of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, journos in the room gave Sound of Falling filmmaker Mascha Schilinski and cast thunderous applause.
The wonder in Cannes is the titles we never see coming, which mushroom into must-haves for distribs, not to mention the entry of a fresh cinematic voice on the global stage.
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The German movie follows four girls during four different time periods — the 1910s, 1940s, 1980s and present day. The entire movie takes place on a German farm, and these young women's lives are interconnected through time, space and generational trauma.
When it came to the inspiration for the movie, which Deadline's Damon Wise calls 'an all-timer,' Schilinski and co-writer Louise Peter came across a photo of three women from the 1920s.
'It was a very modern photo. We got the impression these women were looking straight into our eyes, the filmmaker said. 'We felt the melancholy they suffered from in their past. We thought, 'Let's dig into their history.'' Sound of Falling reps her sophomore directorial.
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Originally the movie had a long working title, however, Schilinski and Peter settled on Sound of Falling.
'People fall from one era into another, some of the characters fall. It struck us as perfect,' said Schilinski.
'Several things happened in this place,' she added, referring to the pic's farm locale. ' We thought maybe someone is the room was using her Google phone, another woman lived in that room. … We have this idea that trauma goes from one generation to the next. We don't have access to these traumas anymore, but something remains in people's hearts.'
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Is it possible for these protags to break free of generational trauma?
'We asked ourselves this very same question,' Schilinski said. 'We don't think that it's really the backdrop that plays a part. We looked into the traumas which could have occurred. When you talk about trauma that dates back to ancestry, it's usually the War. But we weren't interested in major events like war but smaller ones — misfortunes, the feelings that sometimes have a tremendous impact on a character and that people don't talk about it.'
Said actress Lena Urzendowsky, who plays Angelika in the movie: 'Mascha and Louise's screenplay was sufficiently intelligent for us to feel what the other characters were going through. We had a connection to the place which transpired in our acting.'
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Actress Susanne Wuest was greatly inspired by the box of photos the filmmaker provided of the women who lived on the farm.
'When you see the film, there are ghosts that go both ways,' she said. 'I instinctively picked one up. I thought it was super spooky and scary. You can sense history and not be affected. A room can hold a history of a family.'
MK2 has world rights to the Competition film, which Deadline's Andreas Wiseman reports has spurred great interest from buyers.
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