A work of thrilling ambition realised by an assured directorial vision.

At times, it seems as though tragedy has seeped into the very walls of the sprawling farmhouse in Germany’s Altmark region where this story unfolds, only to leach out and pollute the happiness of each subsequent generation. At others, it feels as though the decades that separate the lives of the four girls who are the film’s focus are fluid, and that the barrier of time is somehow permeable. What’s certain is that “Sound of Falling,” the striking second feature from German director Mascha Schilinski, is a work of thrilling ambition, realised by an assured directorial vision.

It’s a work of striking beauty – the subdued, velvety light of farmhouse interiors is a backdrop against which children glow like pearls; the wholesome golds and fecund greens of the arable fields suggest a land bursting with life and shadowed by death.

Wendy Ide, Screen Daily