Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

This astonishingly ambitious feature from German writer-director Mascha Schilinski braids together the lives of four generations of girls across the tumult and violence of the German 20th century. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, it is Germany's entry for Best International Feature at the 2026 Oscars.

On the river Elbe between Berlin and Hamburg, a family farm sits in a region that saw both world wars and defined Cold War divisions between East and West Germany. We visit with Alma in the early 20th century, Erika in the 1940s, Angelika in the 1980s and Lenka in the present. As time moves both forwards and backwards, each faces her own particular fate.

"It's been a while since I've seen a filmmaker wield the tools of her craft with such an ingenious and committed sense of mischief. Sound of Falling... is both disorienting and enveloping; it knocks you off your feet and then sweeps you up again." The New Yorker