VTIFF Program Guide 2025 - Flipbook - Page 25
FILMS A TO Z
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SOUND OF FALLING
THE THINGS YOU KILL
Directed by Mascha Schilinski
Germany | 2025 | Fiction | 149 min | German w/subtitles
Directed by Alireza Khatami
Turkey, Canada, France | 2025 | Fiction | 113 min | Turkish w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Goethe-Institut Boston
Sponsored by: Mark O’Berski
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 3:30 PM | FH
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19 | 2:15 PM | BB
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 | 4 PM | BB
After winning the Jury Prize at Cannes, Sound of Falling announces Mascha Schilinski’s
arrival at the upper echelon of the European art house scene. Told in four braided stories,
each set in a different time period in the same residence, Sound of Falling traces a
lineage of girls coming of age in Germany across a godforsaken century. Each character
endures hardships specific to her historical moment, but all their experiences echo
through time, reflected in the eyes of the women who came before them and those who
come after. And each perseveres through small acts of rebellion while nurturing secret
desires. With a look inspired by photographer Francesca Woodman, Sound of Falling’s
baroque tableaux are rich with texture and cloaked in deep shadows. Each chapter is
poignant and beautifully conceived, but it’s the quantum entanglement between the
timelines that makes the film remarkable, tapping into the psychic residue passed down
through generations that is so central to 20th-century German cinema. ~OO
A wild, shape-shifting tale of how the quest for vengeance can fundamentally mar our
humanity, Alireza Khatami’s The Things You Kill is a gritty, surprising, and thoroughly
entertaining look at a man who traps himself in a cycle of violence. Ali (Ekin Koc), a
college professor, can’t stop thinking that maybe his estranged father had something to
do with his mother’s death, and that maybe he should do something about it. Unwisely,
he acts on that impulse. In his third feature, Khatami (Terrestrial Voices) orchestrates a
gradual descent, peeling back long-held secrets to reveal horrors both personal and
cultural. Winner of the World Cinema Directing Award at this year’s Sundance Film
Festival, The Things You Kill is a bold, confident story that uses thriller and horror
conventions to disguise its social critique. It’s a cinematic thrill ride. ~SM
TIMESTAMP
Directed by Kateryna Gornostai
Ukraine | 2025 | Documentary | 125 min | Ukrainian w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Larry Crist and Janie Cohen
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 1:15 PM | BB
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 | 7 PM | BB
The war in Ukraine has been documented in a number of brilliant films (20
Days in Mariupol, Porcelain War, Viktor, The Invasion, etc.), but Kateryna
Gornostai’s film is something different. Using no narration or talking heads
or voice-over commentary, she looks at the everyday lives of teachers and
students from different corners of Ukraine in a time of war (i.e., now). The
students sing patriotic songs about a war they’re too young to understand,
and they attend classes in rooms that are little more than rubble. Over the
course of a school year, the students’ attitudes change—and stay the
same—in ways that are both inspiring and heartbreaking. The teachers
emerge as quiet heroes, doing what they can to get these students an
experience something like childhood. As critic Guy Lodge said, “Gornostai
has achieved something grand, cutting through the noise and partisanship
to put us in the shoes of a brave, battered populace.” ~SM
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
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