SOUND & VISION

Sound Of Metal has been a long time coming. Not just in its protracted UK release, which has been postponed repeatedly as a result of the pandemic after it first bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 (and now finally has dates locked for streaming and, hopefully, cinema). This is a project that’s been in the works for more than a decade. “That journey from [TIFF 2019] until now feels particularly long because it’s also included a complete shift in who we are as a globe,” explains Darius Marder over Zoom, when we catch up just hours after his film has received four Bafta nominations in March 2021. “It’s been a journey, for sure, and the span from between TIFF and now is small compared to the rest of the span,” he laughs.

Remarkably, is Marder’s first narrative feature film as a director; he’s previously worked as a director and editor on documentaries, and is a close collaborator with Derek Cianfrance (with whom he co-wrote began life somewhat differently, as an ‘exploratory, hybrid began when editing early footage some 15 years ago.