The Ghosts of Girlhoods Past in “Sound of Falling”

At the start of the extraordinary German drama “Sound of Falling,” a teen-ager, Erika (Lea Drinda), hobbles down a hall on one leg and a pair of crutches. It takes a second to realize that she has no disability; she has used a length of rope to tuck her left leg out of sight. The crutches belong to her uncle Fritz (Martin Rother), an amputee, who is asleep in his bedroom when she sneaks in to return them. Actually, he’s only feigning sleep: though his eyes are closed, he’s undoubtedly awake as she approaches his bed, studies his bare chest, and touches his navel. From these opening moments, the film is punctuated by spasms of youthful curiosity—about the strange properties of one’s body, and the forbidden feel of someone else’s—and also by wicked games of cunning and deceit. In a later sce