The sound of falling is unsettling — sudden, inevitable, and hard to ignore. Much like this film, it lingers with a sense of unease and melancholy. Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski unfolds across four timelines spanning one hundred years, all connected by a single farm in the Altmark region of Germany. The lives of the people who inhabit this place, with a particular focus on the women, are told through interwoven strands of time and memory.
With striking set design and costumes, the characters are brought to life in their full complexity and uniqueness, evoking a strong yet uneasy sense of nostalgia. The inhabitants are deeply marked by the different eras they happen to live in, while the women in particular must endure the intrusiveness and oppression of the men on the small farm. Camera angles and, at times, unsettling editing amplify the emotions of the different characters, while visual effects like lens flares and sweeping camera movements occasionally overwhelm, while still contributing to the density of the films entangled narrative.

Recurring elements across the different time periods strengthen the sense of interconnection, while also highlighting the weight of inherited trauma that threads through generations.

Already awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes, Sound of Falling stands as a haunting meditation on history, memory and the enduring impact of time.

Berlin Atonal 25’ takes place from August 27 to 31, transforming Kraftwerk Berlin as well as the clubs Tresor and OHM into a dense mesh of music, art, and performance for five days. The festival sees itself not just as a stage, but as a playground for experimentation, where commissioned works, premieres, and installations meet club nights and immersive spatial experiences.

At the center is the monumental main stage inside Kraftwerk: a 70,000 m³ space that temporarily becomes an atmospheric resonator. Fog, sound, and light create an environment where the boundaries between concert, performance, and installation dissolve. Listening becomes a physical experience that extends far beyond hearing alone.

The program is dense and diverse. Thursday features new immersive shows by emptyset with MFO, Carrier with Riyo Nemeth, and a dreamlike set from Malibu; afterwards, Lil Mofo, livwutang, and STILL take over the afterhours. Friday highlights Lord Spikeheart & NMR with their politically charged project »REIGN«, bela’s »Korean Love Sonnets«, along with performances by John T. Gast, GRIEND, and Billy Bultheel. On the club stages, Rrose, Skee Mask, and re\:ni b2b Mia Koden, among others, set the tone for the night.

Saturday brings Amnesia Scanner & Freeka.tet with »S.L.O.T.H.«, a rare duo concert by Mark Fell & Okkyung Lee, the live debut of Gombeen & Doygen, as well as new performances from Lechuga Zafiro & Verraco, Chuquimamani-Condori, and Sofii. The grand finale on Sunday features the debut of the trio Merzbow / Iggor Cavalera / Eraldo Bernocchi, a multisensory show by Heith, and the »Organic Intelligence« project by the Jokkoo Collective — a speculative soundscape imagining ecological and cultural resistance.

With its admission into the International Biennial Association, Berlin Atonal opens a new chapter this year. This step makes clear that the festival is designed to establish itself long-term as a music-centered biennial for sound art and interdisciplinary formats. The international recognition shows that this is not just a festival, but a platform for artistic risk-taking and experimental practice.

Tresor and OHM also play a key role. Here, what begins on the main stage as a concentrated listening experience unfolds into energetic club nights that stretch well into the morning. Between exhibition and dance floor, between perception and ecstasy, a field of tension emerges that makes Berlin Atonal unique.

Berlin Atonal 25’ is therefore less a conventional festival and more a laboratory for contemporary cultural practice — a place where boundaries are pushed and new forms of gathering are explored.

An experience that lasts.

Tickets for Atonal can be purchased here. See the full program here.

A few days after the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2021, director Ibrahim Nash’at arrived in Kabul, “with only an Afghan translator and a camera.” Though under constant surveillance, Nash’at had been granted access to follow the day-in day-out of two selected Taliban officials at the newly occupied Hollywoodgate complex in Kabul. 

“I came to see in whose hands this country was left in.” 

It becomes obvious that the Taliban are aware of the power of images, restricting what is allowed to be filmed by Nash’at and what is off-limits. Still, the final edit of Hollywoodgate, resulting from two hundred and twenty hours of raw documentary footage, is far from the propaganda movie the Taliban had envisioned when they first let the man with the camera into the country they claim as their own.  

With all this complexity, Hollywoodgate gives us a glimpse into how the Taliban think and conduct their days, while also revealing the impulsive violence with which they execute their power. It’s a violence that is not only – and not necessarily – loud, but whose destructive power also lies in the quiet moments: in their conversations, their off-hand comments, their laughter, in every action and choice they act upon. 

“I was kept away from the daily suffering of the Afghans, yet I feel it everywhere I go.”

However, Nash’at also wants us to remember that the people in Afghanistan are not only facing the violence of the Taliban but also the abandonment of those that spent the last twenty years making promises of betterment to them. It’s estimated that 7.1 billion dollars worth of advanced equipment was left behind by US forces – from army rifles, to helicopters and fighter jets. 

Their daily suffering is being passed on and transforms; as easily as newly seized AK-47’s are passed on from one pair of hands to the other. 

What we see in Hollywoodgate is just what Nash’at saw:

“The obscene power and the pain that it causes.”

In an age of accelerating schedules and aesthetic overload, true luxury often reveals itself not in forced extravagance, but in spaciousness that leaves room for choices. Along the glistening curve of Turkey’s southern coast, nestled beside pine forests and the Mediterranean Sea, the Ali Bey Resort Sorgun offers a version of luxury that is less about spectacle and more about alignment—between body and pace, design and ecology, past and present.

An organized jungle

It is late when I arrive at the reception hall, a big space that mixes tradition with modern design. Here, Turkish hospitality starts at its finest: A golf cart picks me up to drive me to my room, driving down the beautiful tree-framed paths that almost feel like an „organized jungle“ in the darkness. The peaceful pace and energy remains the same in the morning, despite all guest and families that have slowly openend the vacation season that comes with many activities as well.

Built in 2010 by a Turkish family-owned group, the resort unfolds across 120,000 square meters of gardens and wooded terrain. It feels less like a hotel complex and more like a cultivated ecosystem—one where architecture, nature, and time are allowed to breathe. No trees were cut during the construction of the pools; the topography was followed rather than forced. The result is a landscape of quiet elegance: stone pathways between olive trees, curved waterlines that echo natural springs, shaded corners that invite stillness.

A dive into rich history

Yet to truly understand the emotional depth of this place, one must consider its setting: Side, one of the Mediterranean’s oldest and most storied cities. Founded by Greek settlers around the 7th century BCE, Side became a thriving Roman port and a cultural melting pot of the ancient world. It was here that Antony and Cleopatra once anchored their ships; here that temples rose in devotion to Apollo and Athena, gods of sun and wisdom. Today, the ruins remain: a vast amphitheater carved into the earth, half-buried bathhouses, stone-paved roads leading to colonnades now softened by centuries of wind and salt. A short drive from the resort, the Side Museum offers one of the most quietly powerful historical encounters in the region. Housed in a former Roman bath, the museum displays sarcophagi, reliefs, and statues unearthed in the surrounding area—many left in situ, touched by time rather than removed from it. Here, history is not staged behind glass but embedded in atmosphere. It is not uncommon to stand before a 2,000-year-old lion sculpture and hear nothing but cicadas.

This subtle sense of continuity—between the ancient and the immediate—is what gives the Ali Bey Resort Sorgun its particular rhythm. Built in 2010 it now counts 429 rooms and suits, protecting sufficient privacy in 12 different buildings.

While the resort is fully modern in its offerings—Ultra All-Inclusive, four à-la-carte restaurants, a sprawling Samara Spa—it never feels severed from its surroundings. The Spa  – a signature for the resort group – follows the same vision too: mixing traditions with modern approaches, offering exclusive treatments such as Aromatherapy, Bali and Thai Massages but also a Turkish bath and saunas on four levels and 2000 square meters.

The experience of space

There is a tangible gentleness in how space is used and offered: quiet zones by the pool, hidden reading nooks and natural materials that echo the terrain. This all exists right next to a whole different reality for those who seek adventure and action: fitness or dance classes or – above – a dedicated place for tennis lovers, no matter if on professional or amateur level.With 91 courts, the Ali Bey Hotels & Resorts group counts to one of the biggest tennis centers in the world, hosting many national and international tournaments. The Sorgun resort alone has 37 courts including three children’s courts providing a dedicated service.

But back to the silence seeker: Remote workers, in particular, such as me who had come with a bag full of work, will find a kind of rare generosity here. With generous Wi-Fi – really everywhere, even at the beach – shaded garden spaces, and an atmosphere that encourages pacing rather than urgency, the resort is surprisingly conducive to creative focus. You can write beneath the trees, take calls between olive branches snacking the best turkish delights and tea, breathing in sea air to then submerge into silence again before taking a sunset yoga and stretching class facing the beach. The contrast is healing. But also the resort’s service speaks of excellence: A recent guest was complaining about not being able to have any wish left, what an overwhelming condition.

Sustainability, too, is more than a buzzword here—it is embedded in both design and operation. Beyond the ecological landscaping, long-term partnerships with local producers, and material longevity, there’s a palpable care for slowness, continuity, and conscious use. Even the gastronomic experience leans into seasonal produce, from Anatolian dishes to teppanyaki served by the sea. But the restaurant really offers something for anyone on a high quality despite it being  All-Inclusive.

Families are welcomed without compromise. Children’s programs are held in nature, not on screens, offering highlights as their famous waterpark. Entertainment takes place under stars, with live music and storytelling instead of artificial spectacle. And always, just beyond the resort, the outlines of ancient Side remain—reminding guests that luxury is not a break from history, but perhaps a quiet conversation with it. Some might here it louder, others might need to listen a little bit longer.

Ali Bey Resort Sorgun is not a minimalist retreat, nor a maximalist stage. It is something rarer: a space of balance—between leisure and purpose, family and solitude, design and nature, past and present. To stay here is not to escape, but to return: to a slower pace, to a grounded rhythm, to a setting where even the silence seems to hold memory.