Sound work becomes an unlikely gateway into obsession in Piaffe, a 2023 German drama-fantasy about a woman thrust into a job she never asked for.
What is Piaffe about?
Eva has spent her life in the background, the quieter of two siblings, until her sister Zara's nervous breakdown leaves a Foley artist's post empty and no one else to fill it. Eva steps into the recording booth without training or confidence, learning to conjure footsteps, rustling fabric, and animal movement out of ordinary objects. The job pulls something loose in her: a fixation on texture, control, and the sensory world she is suddenly responsible for building sound by sound. Piaffe follows that unraveling with a controlled, almost clinical patience, using the mechanics of Foley work — a craft built on faking the real — as a way into questions about identity, repression, and transformation that the film never rushes to resolve.
About the cast
Simone Bucio plays Eva, with Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau, Sebastian Rudolph, and Bjørn Melhus in supporting roles. Director Ann Oren, working from her own script, builds the film around close, tactile performances that match the story's fixation on sound and surface.
Context & significance
Piaffe premiered in the festival circuit as part of a wave of German-language films exploring body and identity through unconventional professions, and it takes its title from a dressage term for a horse's controlled, in-place trot — an image the film returns to as a metaphor for restraint held just short of release. At 86 minutes, it favors atmosphere and sound design over plot momentum.
Watching Piaffe on Ktime
Piaffe is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, making it accessible to Farsi-speaking audiences alongside the original German-language version. Watching only requires a free K-Time account and login; the film's page can be browsed without one.