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When
Fri 9 Jan - Sun 18 Jan 2026
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Director Oliver Hermanus follows up his award-winning film Living with a heart-rending experience for romantics and music lovers alike.
In a college town bar in 1917, a traditional folk song modestly sung from a piano draws two New England Conservatory students together. For Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal), the song reminds him of his childhood on a Kentucky farm. For David White (Josh O’Connor), the song is one of many he has uncovered on his music-collecting journeys through America’s heartland.
As the pair embarks on a hushed love affair, war and unknown circumstances threaten to pull them apart.
Curator’s Note
For a long time, the erasure of queer stories and experiences from the period drama was remarkable – in the true sense of the word – but oddly unremarked upon. The History of Sound furthers an urgent but slow-moving course-correction made by films like Sally Potter’s Orlando and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.
Director Oliver Hermanus broke hearts with 2022’s Living, and The History of Sound offers audiences an emotional roller-coaster, if roller-coasters were quietly and confidently paced, and soundtracked by beautiful Americana folk songs.
The History of Sound premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
"The performances are remarkable, particularly Mescal’s—just to watch him listening is galvanizing."
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