The Falling
Set in 1969 in a rural British girls school, []The Falling [/i] explores what lies behind a mysterious fainting and twitching outbreak that rapidly spreads amongst the pupils. At the centre of the epidemic are intense and clever Lydia Lamont (Maisie Williams) and admired and rebellious Abbie Mortimer (Florence Pugh), both sixteen years old. They carve their initials into a majestic English oak tree, which leans over a magical pond, and vow never to lose touch. But Lydia already feels that Abbie is drifting away from her and soon her fears are confirmed.A gang of committed friends including prefect Susan (Anna Burnett), who longs to be Abbie, and skeptical Titch (Rose Caton) who remains unaffected by the fainting, surround Lydia. But none of them can take Abbie's place. Only her older brother, loner, occult-follower and ley-line believer Kenneth (Joe Cole), is able to provide some solace. When the sympathetic young art teacher Miss Charron (Morfydd Clark) tries to reach out to Lydia, she herself becomes caught up in the fainting epidemic.Within the volatile, strange atmosphere of the school and her troubled home-life, Lydia feels driven to discover what is really behind everything that seems wrong. As the fainting escalates Lydia confronts the authority figures around her: her mother, self absorbed home hairdresser Eileen (Maxine Peake), the unbending and indomitable deputy head Miss Mantel (Greta Scacchi), and the enigmatic and powerful headmistress Miss Alvaro (Mónica Dolan). Eventually Lydia's actions force old secrets to rise to the surface and she finds herself faced with a truth that she never expected.___A children's song is heard in a deserted luxurious forest. A girl remembers somebody making love in a car.Cut to a school, where Abigail "Abbie" Mortimer (Florence Pugh) feels bad. Miss Mantel (Greta Scacchi) checks the length of her skirt and the red marks in her body. At the science classroom, an attractive male teacher (Guy Morris) says that an egg is a cell and explains why sometimes there is blood on it.They are painting in the wet forest a rainy day. Lydia Lamont (Maisie Williams) caresses Abbie's hair. They carve their initials into a majestic English oak tree.The teachers smoke, even in the classroom! Abbie is reciting a poem. Weird loose scenes linked by the music and chorus of girls play. One of the girls throws up. Lydia's mother, called Eileen (Maxine Peake) is dying a customer (Louise Tomlinson)'s hair and Lydia throws the dye to the floor.Abbie is pregnant. She thinks that it can't be, because the boy withdrew early. Abbie laughs it off. Back home, Kenneth (Joe Cole) - who is Lydia's brother- interrupts Lydia and Abbie discussing how to have an abortion with a needle. Kenneth takes Lydia and Abbie dancing, but he is only interested in Abbie, who makes love to him, while Lydia, still a virgin, reads in a cupboard in another room. Abbie says to upset Lydia that sex with Kenneth doesn't mean anything, and mentions "free love".Abbie and Lydia are sent to detention the following day because they are late for class. Mantel speaks to Abbie, and she throws up at her feet. Abbie is not hungry, so Janet eats her dessert and realises that Abbie is pregnant because Abbie thinks it tastes metallic, as did Janet's mum when she was pregnant. Abbie faints in the middle of the dining room. Lydia insists to Abbie that she must sell the baby and not kill it. Abbie faints again and bleeds through the nose.Miss Mantel tells Lydia to call an ambulance. Lydia thinks that she is losing her baby.Lydia is distraught that Abbie is dead. Eileen doesn't seem bothered and turns the TV volume up so as not to hear Lydia's rhythmic thumping on furniture.The headmistress rehearses her speech. A poetry prize is created in Abbie's name. Lydia stares at nothing.Lydia, Susan, Titch (Rose Caton), Gwen (Lauren McCrostie), Connie (Katie Ann Knight) and Janet (Evie Hooton) keep on playing within the alternative orchestra that Abbie had started up.Lydia comes to Miss Mantel's classroom late and "dances" until she faints.Eileen has her salon at home because she doesn't want to leave home. Titch's watch has stopped. At that moment, in the middle of the classroom of art, Lydia faints and falls. Another girl faints. The art teacher looks startled. The next fainter is Gwen.Teachers think it's just neurosis and showing off. Lydia takes Susan home and Kenneth smiles at her.The art teacher is the next one who falls, and then, Lydia again.Kenneth believes in magic, but Lydia doesn't. She kneels down in the middle of the school corridor, but nobody pays attention to her. This seems to cause a tic in her eye.Instances and instances of fainting, even in groups of two. The art teacher hugs Lydia and Lydia tries to caress her face. When the art teacher rejects her, Lydia faints and the teacher doesn't go to her. The teacher also rejects Mr. Hopkins (Mathew Baynton)'s advances.The headmistress, Miss Alvaro (Monica Dolan), offers Lydia time off school for a while. When Lydia refuses, she wants to see her mother, but she won't go. Lydia faints and this time, it looks like she has hurt herself. Eileen keeps on smoking and doesn't do anything. Kenneth thinks that Lydia is like that because of something that she has done.A lady comes to speak about accidents at the home. Lydia is excluded from this so she kicks the door while her eye twitches; Many girls get up and faint, even the art teacher. There are images they see in their heads. The art teacher has a fit as well. Lydia stares at all the girls "dancing" and fainting. Miss Fanshawe (Elizabeth Marsh), Alvaro and the rest stare puzzled.Girls are panicking at hospital. Only Titch is immune.Mantel realises that the art teacher is pregnant, and she admits that she had a child. She remembers her bloodied hands during an abortion.Lydia and Gwen speak to a psychologist.Lydia thinks that there has to be a real illness, but doctors think that it's 'hysterical contagion'. Lydia is expelled when she returns home.Finally, Eileen admits that she was raped, and that was when she got pregnant with Lydia. Lydia leaves saying that she is glad to know. She goes to the forest: she feels that the full moon is speaking to her. As she feels that Abbie is calling her, she screams Abbie's name. She climbs the oak with their names scratched. She laughs hysterically.Smoking, Eileen enters the forest, having nightmares about her rape. Lydia is about to jump.Lydia jumps into the river shouting "Abbiiiiie". Her mother wades in and hugs her body. Lydia dreams with Abbie. Lydia wakes up.Eileen and Lydia hug in the middle of the river.
insanity