Introduction to a Groundbreaking Film
"I was afraid I would be wrong," said 41-year-old director and screenwriter Mascha Schilinski when her film was appointed jury winner at the Cannes International Film Festival. "It was a kind of surreal moment – just wonderful." Before the festival, the filmmaker said that she was "incredibly happy" that her film "Sound of Falling" was selected in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. "It is a dream of a filmmaker!"
German Representation at Cannes
German directors in Cannes were known to be as rare as a decent lunch for less than €20. This year, the country was also represented by Fatih Akin, whose historical film "Amrum" emerged from the competition, and Christian Petzold, whose feature "Spiegel No. 3" was selected for the fourteen days of the directors, an independent sidebar at the Cannes Festival. However, Schilinski was the only German director with a film in the main competition since Maren Ade’s "Toni Erdmann" in 2016.
Portrait of Four Generations
"Sound of Falling" is set on a farm in a small village in northeastern Germany. It follows the life of four generations of women who live on the farm and interweave their stories by jumping back and forth under different timelines until the boundaries between them are blurred. What begins as a portrait of four generations becomes a comprehensive representation of a century. The film is an attempt to imagine answers to the questions that Schilinski has had since childhood, growing up in an apartment building in Berlin, wondering what happened between the walls in the past.
Focus on the Female Perspective
As with Schilinski’s debut film "Dark Blue Girl", a psychodrama about a complicated family dynamic, this latest work focuses on a female perspective that connects events from the perspective of women. The female look was very important for Schilinski and her co-author because it is so rare in films. "The film is very much about looks, the eyes that women were exposed to over a century, as it feels today and how it continued and burned into the body," said the director.
The Director’s Background
Schilinski’s career path seems to be almost predestined: her mother is a filmmaker she took with her on film shoots, and she began to act for film and television while she was still at school. Then she made film internships, worked as a casting agent, traveled through Europe, and worked as a magician and fire brigade dancer for a small hiking circus. After studying script at the Hamburg film school, she settled in Berlin and worked as a freelance screenwriter for film and television. Schilinski attracted some attention when "Dark Blue Girl" was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival 2017, and her career will probably get another boost with the jury price for her latest film in Cannes.
Upcoming Release
"Sound of Falling" will be released in German cinemas on September 11th. The film’s success at the Cannes International Film Festival is a significant milestone in Schilinski’s career, and audiences can look forward to experiencing this powerful and thought-provoking film.
