Deadline has released the screenplay for Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling, the Jury Prize winner at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and Germany's entry for the 2026 Oscars. The film explores the lives of four generations of women on a farm in northern Germany. It uses a non-linear structure to delve into themes of intergenerational trauma and historical echoes.
Overview
Mascha Schilinski's feature film Sound of Falling, originally titled In die Sonne schauen, premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where it earned the Jury Prize. This impressionistic drama serves as Germany's official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2026 Academy Awards. The screenplay, co-written by Schilinski and Louise Peter, is now featured in Deadline's Read the Screenplay series, allowing readers to explore its unique narrative approach.
Narrative Structure
The story unfolds through a fractured, non-linear timeline that emphasizes the simultaneity of different eras. Rather than following a straightforward plot, it presents a sensory exploration of how past events resonate in the present. The film centers on a single homestead in the Altmark region of northern Germany, near the former Iron Curtain along the River Elbe. This setting, marked by historical turbulence, underscores the lingering effects of trauma across generations.
Characters and Themes
Four protagonists anchor the narrative: Alma in the 1910s, played by Hanna Heckt; Erika in the 1940s, portrayed by Lea Drinda; Angelika in the 1980s, brought to life by Lena Urzendowsky; and Lenka in the 2020s, enacted by Laeni Geiseler. Their lives, though separated by decades, intersect through shared family secrets and mirrored experiences. The script highlights the female perspective, often overlooked in historical records, and addresses cycles of violence, survival, and the quest for authentic existence. Schilinski describes it as capturing the 'gaps in people’s felt experience for which there are no words,' blending everyday life with profound emotional undercurrents.
Historical Context
Drawing from research into the region's past, the film incorporates real accounts, such as the constraints faced by women like dairy maids. It examines how intergenerational trauma manifests in subtle, persistent ways, from bodily betrayals to unvoiced shames. While the characters navigate cruelty as routine, the overall tone evokes a quiet yearning to break free from historical burdens.
