Weekend films

"The Sound of a Fall", a choral female tale crossing different eras

In theatres at the weekend, Mascha Schilinski's powerful film, which won an award at the Cannes Film Festival

by Andrea Chimento

28 February 2026

Una scena tratta dal film «Il suono di una caduta» di Mascha Schilinski

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

One of the most fascinating surprises of recent years: when 'The Sound of a Fall' was announced in competition at the Cannes Film Festival last May, many were astonished at the decision to include a film by a little-known director in the running for the Palme d'Or.

Mascha Schilinski, born in Berlin in 1981, had already made her feature film debut with the little-known 'Die Tocher' (it was presented in a side section of the Berlinale) and finding her second feature in the main competition at Cannes could have been a risky choice.

However, it only takes a few minutes to realise that we are in front of a richly evocative feature film with a very curious subject: set on a remote farm in northern Germany, the film tells the story of four different eras and four young women whose lives, although distant in time, seem to mirror each other.

Una scena tratta dal film «Il suono di una caduta» di Mascha Schilinski

During the Great War, the small and introverted Alma witnesses, without fully understanding, a family secret linked to the amputation of a relative's leg. Decades later, after the Second World War, the descendant Erika feels inexplicably drawn to that same figure. In the 1980s, niece Angelika faces the discovery of her own sexuality, but the menacing shadow of a predatory uncle looms over her adolescence, leaving deep wounds. In contemporary times, the farm - now transformed into a holiday home - becomes the place where the melancholic Lenka enters into a fragile friendship with a girl scarred by the loss of her mother.

The four eras intermingle again and again, deliberately also leading the audience to be disoriented as they pass through different moments in which the individual stories of the characters intertwine with Germany's evolutions over time.

References to Roland Barthes

"The Sound of a Fall" is a film that, in moving from dealing with individual stories to offering a more universal scope, also becomes a profoundly socio-political, feminist operation, capable of recounting the past in order to speak of the present.

There are a number of interesting theoretical points in relation to photography and, first and foremost, to the theories of Roland Barthes and the punctum recounted in his book 'The Clear Room': the photographic act becomes a sort of freezing of existence in a film whose original title ('In die schonnen') refers to looking at the sunlight and, consequently, can also be interpreted as a reflection on the act of looking at the camera lens at the moment of taking the shot.

The cues are numerous, and while there is no lack of complacency at times due to a cumbersome narrative construction, they are enhanced by a refined style and an eerie overall atmosphere that manages to engage from start to finish.

The third time

Gianni Aureli's 'The Third Time' focuses on strong content, a story of escape, courage and secrets, set in the dark heart of the Second World War. We are in Italia in 1943, in the chaos following the armistice, while German troops occupy Matera and Potenza carrying out brutal raids. Amid contradictory orders and a population suspended between fear and hope, a mysterious woman desperately seeks freedom.

A curious female road movie against the backdrop of war, it is a film that tells an individual story with a universal scope.

Lo scuru

A dark atmosphere also characterises 'Lo scuru', another of the titles released this week. Directed by newcomer Giuseppe William Lombardo, the film recounts the inner odyssey of a young man who returns to his homeland to confront nightmares and ancient sorrows, in a place where superstition and collective memory continue to exert a profound influence.