Draft:Those Who Fall Have Wings

Those Who Fall Have Wings
Jeder der fällt hat Flügel
Directed by	Peter Brunner
Written by	Peter Brunner
Produced by	Klara von Veegh
Starring	Renate Hild Jana McKinnon
Cinematography	Franz Dude
Production company	Cataract Vision
Running time	92 minutes
Country	Austria
Language	German

Those Who Fall Have Wings (German: Jeder der fällt hat Flügel) is a 2015 Austrian drama film written and directed by Peter Brunner. Starring Renate Hild and Jana McKinnon, the film follows a young woman returning to her family home to care for her terminally ill grandmother, confronting grief, memory and the prospect of loss. It had its world premiere in the Crystal Globe Competition of the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize.

Plot

Fifteen-year-old Kati returns with her family to her grandmother's home after learning that her grandmother is terminally ill. As the family prepares for her impending death, Kati struggles to come to terms with the emotional changes taking place around her.

While caring for her grandmother alongside her mother and younger sister, Kati is confronted with grief, uncertainty and the transition into adolescence. As memories, dreams and everyday life increasingly intersect, she attempts to understand the loss of a loved one while navigating her own emerging identity.

Cast

• Renate Hild as Gandmom
• Jana McKinnon as Kathi

Production

Those Who Fall Have Wings was produced by the Austrian independent film collective Cataract Vision, with Klara von Veegh as producer. It was Peter Brunner's second feature film after My Blind Heart (2014).

Brunner has said that the project did not begin with a conventional screenplay. Instead, he developed the film from visual sketches, photographs, poems and fragments of scenes, allowing the material to evolve during the writing and shooting process. He described this working method as a way of expressing emotional and psychological states through cinematic images rather than a strictly linear narrative.

According to Brunner, the story was partly inspired by his experiences surrounding the illness and death of his grandmother, to whom the film is dedicated. The title is derived from a line in a poem by Ingeborg Bachmann, while music based on a poem by Heinrich Heine set by Robert Schumann also influenced the film's tone.

The cast includes both professional and first-time performers. Renate Hild, who plays the grandmother, is Brunner's mother and made her feature film debut in the role. Brunner said he cast her because of the natural relationship she shared with lead actress Jana McKinnon. Rehearsals focused primarily on developing the characters and their relationships, while allowing space for improvisation during filming.

Principal photography took place in rural Austria. The film was shot by cinematographer Franz Dude, and Brunner also served as editor.

Release

Those Who Fall Have Wings premiered on 9 July 2015 in the Crystal Globe Competition of the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. After its world premiere, the film was screened at several international film festivals before receiving its Austrian theatrical release.

Reception

Those Who Fall Have Wings received generally positive reviews following its premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Before the festival, Dennis Harvey of Variety described the film as a "cinematically ambitious, symbol-based method of coming to terms with the painful loss of a loved one". After the premiere, he referred to it as a "tender look at aging" while reporting on its Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary.

Reviewing the film for Screen Daily, Lee Marshall praised Renate Hild's performance and the film's visual treatment of grief and mortality, describing Hild as "a luminous presence".

Nisimazine called the film a visually distinctive meditation on illness, loss and family, noting its blend of realism and dreamlike imagery.

Writing for critic.de, Michael Kienzl noted the film's formal experimentation and symbolic imagery, while Stefan Grissemann of Falter highlighted Brunner's combination of documentary observation and poetic fiction.

Cereality awarded the film four out of five stars, praising its visual style and understated emotional approach.

Awards and festivals

Those Who Fall Have Wings had its world premiere in the Crystal Globe Competition of the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July 2015, where it received the Special Jury Prize.

After its premiere, the film screened at numerous international film festivals, including the Montreal World Film Festival, Reykjavík International Film Festival, Filmfest Hamburg, Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, Malatya International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the International Film Festival of India in Goa, the 2morrow International Film Festival in Moscow, the Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film, the Atlanta Film Festival, Festival Eurocine in Colombia, the Starring Europe Film Festival in Los Angeles, Ceau, Cinema! in Romania, and the Film Festival Kitzbühel.

The film also won the Best Sound Award at the 2morrow International Film Festival in Moscow in 2016.

External links

• Those Who Fall Have Wings at IMDb
• Those Who Fall Have Wings at Austrian Films
• Those Who Fall Have Wings at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
• Those Who Fall Have Wings at Cineuropa
• Those Who Fall Have Wings at the Diagonale Film Archive