Oliver Hermanus

Quiet, searching, and deeply felt, The History of Sound unfolds like a folk song passed carefully from hand to hand. Set in the aftermath of the First World War, Oliver Hermanus’ adaptation of Ben Shattuck’s short story traces the intimate bond between two young music students, Lionel and David, as their shared devotion to folk…

A love of music – or, more specifically, folk music – is the driving force behind the tender, heartbreaking romance at the core of The History of Sound, an ironically quiet tale of song collecting and enduring connection between two men in the early 1900s. The story is experienced predominantly through the life of Lionel…