The Fallen (film)

The Fallen: Music from the Motion Picture
The Fallen: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released	12 September 2021
Recorded	2020-2021
Length	51:59
Label	Mountpara Music
Singles from The Fallen: Music from the Motion Picture
	"The Night We Met"; Released: September 12, 2021; "Here with Me"; Released: October 26, 2021;

The Fallen
The Fallen
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Daniël Jaco
Written by	Daniël Jaco
Produced by	John Nickleback; Arthur Dreis; Edward Donaldson
Starring	Lara Page; Jonty Dreis
Cinematography	Ruan de Villiers-Breybach
Edited by	John Macklroy
Music by	Hans Müller
Production; companies	AsteriasPictures; Mount Olympic; SBC
Distributed by	SBC
Release dates	12 September 2021 (Victoriaburg); ; ; ; ; 23 September 2021 (Worldwide); ; ; ; ;
Running time	127 minutes
Country	Satavia
Language	Estmerish
Budget	€12.6 Million
Box office	€136.4 Million

The Fallen is a 2021 Satavian epic tragedy-romance drama directed and written by Daniël Jaco, and based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Matthew Woods. The film stars Lara Page and Jonty Dreis.

The film premiered on September 12, at the Victoriaburg Film Festival, and later was released worldwide on September 23. The film was a box office sucess worldwide, and a blockbuster in Satavia, earning €136.4 million during it's box office run.

The film garnered several nominations and a few wins across several categories at both the Satavian Choice Award and Asterian Film Awards. The film was also nominated for the prestigious Béco aùreo at the 82nd Montecara Film Festival.

Plot

The film begins on New Year's Eve, 1927, where a young couple, Maria Caroll (Lara Page) and Jack Knight (Jonty Dreis) are married in a small ceremony in the village of Beckersdorf, in the Western Province. However, after just three months of marriage, Nuvanian forces land and seize the capital of Satavia, Port Hope, and General Harrison (Richard Blakely) surrenders Satavia to Nuvanian forces.

When Nuvanian troops arrive near their village just weeks later, and in the wake of several atrocities committed by the occupying forces, Jack and Maria's two brothers, Hendrik (Willem de Kok) and Freddie (Jacobus Vanderstadt) are lead to join the growing resistance movement, lead by a young Brigadier-General by the name of Thaddeus Crace (Henry Moorland).

Tragedy, however, strikes when Hendrik is killed during a raid on a Nuvanian military convoy, which forces Freddie and Jack into hiding. Nuvanian troops, under orders to find them and led by the vengeful Captain Griffiths (Daniel Whitworth) plunder Maria's home, with one soldier striking her and threatening to kill her if she doesn't reveal their locations. Unconvinced that she isn't aware of where they're hiding, the soldiers abduct her and burn down her house.

When Jack and Freddie discover this, together with Brigadier-General Crace and his motley crew of men, launch a daring assault on the prison where they are holding many resistance men, in addition to Maria.

During the assault, however, both Freddie and Jack are killed by Captain Griffiths, whilst Maria is rescued. Thaddeus Crace later finds Captain Griffiths attempting to flee, whereupon he shoots him dead with a bullet to the head. Maria struggles to come to terms with the deaths of her brothers and husband, and the film closes with her as an old woman, many years later, standing over Jack's grave, alone.

Cast

Lara Page as Maria Caroll
Jonty Dreis as Jack Knight
Willem de Kok as Hendrik Caroll
Jacobus Vanderstadt as Freddie Caroll
Henry Moorland as Thaddeus Crace
Daniel Whitworth as Captain Griffiths

Production

The Fallen was filmed entirely in Satavia; most of the film was shot on location in the Westerse Vrystaat, near the towns of Port Elliot and Emerson. Additional filming was completed in Goodsteel Studios in Dolfynbaai, Hope Province.

Daniël Jaco, who wrote the script in 2016 based on the 1995 book by Estmerish author Matthew Woods, originally struggled to find financial support for the film. The SBC had originally refused to finance the film due to supposed "Anti-Nuvanian sentiment". The SBC however picked up the film in 2018, providing one-third of the funding, whilst the Rizealander Mount Olympic and the Nuvanian-owned AsteriasPictures provided the remaining two-thirds funding. The film was also awarded funds from the Satavian Ministry of Culture. The film was distributed worldwide by the SBC.

Principal photography began on March 22 2018 and ended on July 4 2018. Approximately 200 members of the Satavian Green Jackets (which form part of the Western Province Light Infantry) were used as extras for the film, primarily portraying Nuvanian soldiers.

Several graphic scenes which portrayed primarily fictional atrocities committed by Nuvanian soldiers were removed from the final edit of the scene, to avoid a 16 age classification, with the film instead rated as 15A, by the SFCO.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was written and composed primarily by Weranian composer Hans Müller, and was performed by the Morwall Symphony Orchestra. The film's soundtrack was originally going to be composed by Richard Swart, but his death meant he was unable to write the soundtrack. Swart had previously worked with Jaco directing in the films A Secret and My Broken Heart, which were both critically acclaimed for their soundtrack.

The soundtrack also featured Bryan Teddy, The Annihilators and Lord Erie.

The Fallen: Music from the Motion Picture
No.	Title	Artist(s)	Length
1.	"New Year's Eve"	Hans Müller	2:28
2.	"The Brewing Storm"	Hans Müller	4:46
3.	"Invasion"	Hans Müller	6:03
4.	"To War!"	Hans Müller & Bryan Teddy	3:55
5.	"Crace's Theme"	Hans Müller	2:59
6.	"And Just Like That, They Were Gone"	Hans Müller	3:55
7.	"Here with Me"	The Annihilators	4:52
8.	"Dreams (That Come True)"	Hans Müller	3:16
9.	"And Those Dreams that Don't"	Hans Müller	8:29
10.	"The Night We Met"	Lord Erie	3:28
11.	"You, Me and What Was Meant to Be"	Hans Müller & Bryan Teddy	4:20
12.	"Credits"	Hans Müller, Lord Erie, The Annihilators & Bryan Teddy	3:28

Reception

The Fallen premiered at the Victoriaburg Film Festival on September 12 2021, and was released worldwide just under two weeks later, on September 23.

Box office

On its opening weekend, The Fallen grossed €7,333,912 in Satavia, and €74.3 million at the end of its box office run in Asteria Inferior. Worldwide, the film grossed €62.1 million for a total box office gross of €136.4 million. In addition, the film was the ninth highest-grossing film of 2021, in addition to becoming the second highest-grossing Satavian film both in Satavia and worldwide, behind the 1999 blockbuster A Secret, which was also directed by Daniël Jaco.

Critical response

The Fallen received generally positive reviews, with critics praising Jonty Dreis's performance as Jack Knight, and Lara Page's role as Maria Caroll, as well as the direction and cinematography of the film. The film's soundtrack, composed by Weranian composer Hans Müller, was also widely praised and was nominated for Best Original Score at the Asterian Film Awards. On Mouldy Potatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89%, with an average score of 8.6/10, based on 73 reviews. On Betacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.

Writing for The Hope Post, Russel Douglas praised the film, calling it "one of the best films I have seen this year". Nuvanian critic Anze de Voorhelm said that "The Fallen makes up for its historical inaccuracy by thrilling us with its slightly disturbing and gritty fight scenes".

The film received a few negative reviews, mainly due to its historical inaccuracies and portrayal of Nuvanian forces, which caused controversy in Nuvania. The film created graphic atrocoties and portrayed them as widespread, whilst there were in fact only a few incidents of rape and murder during the entire occupation, which was generally peaceful.