Though it may well rank among the most epically gloomy films of the year, German director Mascha Schilinski’s second feature, a haunting, era-spanning drama of intergenerational trauma, is just as likely to be among 2026’s most memorable cinema experiences.

A still from Mascha Schilinski’s film Sound of Falling.

Sound of Falling is set on a northern German farm in four different periods – the early 20th century, the end of World War II, the latter years of the German Democratic Republic and the present day. Each period opens a lens on the lives of related women and the cruelties visited upon them by history, rural patriarchy, German culture and their own families.

The tone is set by teenager Erika (Lea Drinda), stumbling on crutches down a hallway. She is missing a leg. In the relative safety of her own room, she lifts her skirt and releases a leather strap, revealing that her missing leg is, in fact, all there. She’s playacting, but this is not play; it’s an erotically charged exploration of her feelings for her uncle Fritz (Martin Rother), an amputee who has occupied a room in...