The Falling

The Falling is a 2014 British mystery drama film written and directed by Carol Morley. It stars Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh (in her first film appearance) as best friends at an all-girls school. The film also stars Greta Scacchi, Monica Dolan, Maxine Peake, and Mathew Baynton. Production began in October 2013. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 11 October 2014 and was released theatrically on 24 April 2015 in the UK. 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 faints and goes into convulsions 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 hospitalised 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 her brother Kenneth, with whom she has developed an incestuous attraction after Abbie's death. Their mother, Eileen, catches them, however, and, armed with a pair of scissors, angrily forces Kenneth out of the house before launching into a tirade against her daughter, in which she brands Lydia dangerous and says that she ought to be locked up. Eileen then reveals that Lydia and Kenneth are only half-siblings, in that Lydia was the product of her rape by a stranger. 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. She eventually locates Lydia, who, in a breakdown over Abbie's death, has climbed to the top of a tree near the school, where she and Abbie used to hang out.