adaptation of an fabw diploma screenplay
With the feature film IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN (SOUND OF FALLING), a German-language film has a chance of winning the Golden Palm at the Festival de Cannes for the first time in eight years. Director Mascha Schilinski completed her studies at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in 2023 with the screenplay for her debut film, which she wrote with FABW graduate Louise Peter*. Other alumni of FABW were also significantly involved in the realization of the film: Fabian Gamper (cinematography), Cosima Vellenzer (production design), Maike Kiefer (Set Decoration), and Claudio Demel (film sound). In the competition of the Cannes International Film Festival, IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN competes against new works by famous filmmakers such as Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Kelly Reichart, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
In 2023, the script for IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN, then still under the working title “The Doctor Says I'll Be Alright, But I'm Feelin Blue”, was awarded the Thomas Strittmatter Prize by MFG Film Funding Baden-Württemberg. The film tells the story of four women from different eras whose lives are eerily intertwined on a secluded four-sided courtyard in the Altmark: Alma (1910s), Erika (1940s), Angelika (1980s) and Nelly (2020s). Each of them experiences their childhood or youth on this farm, but as they roam their own present, traces of the past reveal themselves to them – unspoken fears, repressed traumas, buried secrets. When a tragic event on the farm is repeated, the boundaries between past and present begin to falter.
The film's acting ensemble includes Hanna Heckt, Lena Urzendowsky, Luise Heyer, Lea Drinda, Susanne Wuest and Luzia Oppermann.
Thomas Schadt, Managing Director of FABW, is thrilled: "It's incredible that after SYSTEMSPRENGER by Nora Fingscheidt, IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN is the second film whose script was written as a diploma project at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to be so hugely successful. I am extremely happy for Mascha Schilinski, Louise Peter and the entire team and hope that they will enjoy every minute of this legendary festival. And of course I keep my fingers crossed for the Golden Palm."
The film was produced by Maren Schmitt, Lucas Schmidt and Lasse Scharpen (STUDIO ZENTRAL) in co-production with ZDF/ Das Kleine Fernsehspiel (Commissioning Editors: Burkhard Althoff and Melvina Kotios) with the support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). The film will be distributed in German cinemas by Neue Visionen.
The Festival de Cannes is one of the oldest, most prestigious and most glamorous film festivals in the world. Since 1946, an entire host of international stars have gathered on the Cote d'Azur to present their latest films and hope to win a prestigious Palme d'Or.
*Louise Peter is a scholarship holder of the foundation Baden-Württemberg Stiftung and participated in an international exchange programme as part of her studies at FABW.
Picture: ZDF / Studio Zentral / Fabian Gamper