The Falling is a 2014 British mystery drama film written and directed by Carol Morley about a 1969 epidemic of fainting spells among students at an all-girls school in England. The film follows best friends Lydia and Abbie as their relationship changes and Abbie begins experiencing fainting spells, eventually dying after one such episode. Soon other students and a teacher begin fainting as well. When no medical cause can be found, tensions rise at the school. After Abbie's death, Lydia develops an incestuous relationship with her brother and is expelled from school. Her mentally ill mother also reveals a traumatic past that affects their relationship.

1. The Falling
Independent Film Task
Katie Dunning

2. Background Information
• The Falling is a 2014 British mystery
drama film written and directed by
Carol Morley.
• The Falling earned £468,762 on a
£750,000 Budget
• Produced by the BBC Films, British Film
institute

3. Production
• BFI funded the film £750K. Production began in October 2013.
• The soundtrack is by Tracey Thorn. Morley asked Thorn to provide the
music for the film after editing had begun.

4. Plot
• In 1969, Lydia and Abbie are best friends at an English girls school. Lydia, the neglected daughter of an agoraphobic
mother, becomes fixated on Abbie, who has begun to explore her sexuality. After having sex with Lydia's brother Kenneth
in an attempt to abort her pregnancy by another boy, Abbie begins to suffer from fainting spells. She suffers an episode
after a stint in detention with Lydia and dies in the process. Following Abbie's burial, Lydia begins suffering as well from
fainting spells, and it soon becomes an epidemic, with numerous girls and a young teacher in the school spontaneously
passing out for no more than a few seconds. Lydia becomes convinced that the administration must take action, much to
the chagrin of the school principal.
• When an assembly becomes disrupted by a mass fainting episode, the school is temporarily shut down and all affected
students are hospitalized and psychoanalysed. When no cause for the spells is discovered, the school is reopened and
Lydia is expelled. That same night, the virginal Lydia has sex with Kenneth, with whom she has developed a incestuous
relationship after Abbie's death. However their mother Eileen catches them and, armed with a pair of scissors, angrily
forces Kenneth out of the house before launching into an argument with her daughter, in which she brands Lydia
dangerous and that she ought to be locked up. Eileen also reveals that Lydia and Kenneth are only half-siblings; Lydia being
the product of a rape. Upon learning this, Lydia runs out of the house and Eileen follows her outside, despite having never
ventured outside in over 16 years. Searching for Lydia, Eileen is overcome with flashbacks of her own sexual assault, and
eventually locates Lydia; who has climbed to the top of a tree in a breakdown over Abbie's death. Eileen pleads with Lydia
to come down, but she laughs, challenging her mother's lack of maternal affection, before losing her footing and leaping
from the tree into a lake. Distraught, Eileen ventures into the water and cradles Lydia's drowned body, realizing that her
emotional frigidity had done more harm to her daughter than she knew. Lydia regains consciousness, and the film ends
with the two women in a crying embrace.

5. Cast
• Maisie Williams as Lydia
Lamont
• Maxine Peake as Eileen Lamb
• Monica Dolan as Miss Alvaro
• Greta Scacchi as Miss Mantel

6. Film Release
• The Falling premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 11 October
2014. It had a limited release in the United Kingdom, grossing
£442,177 with a further £10,051 grossed in New Zealand. US DVD
sales amounted to another £6,406

7. Film Posters

8. Awards