Twin Sisters (film)
Encyclopedia
Twin Sisters is the English-language title of De Tweeling, a 2002 Dutch
film
, directed by Ben Sombogaart
, based on the novel The Twins
by Tessa de Loo, with a screenplay by Dutch actress and writer Marieke van der Pol.
The film tells the story of twin German sisters Lotte (Thekla Reuten
) and Anna (Nadja Uhl
), separated at a young age. After the death of their parents, they are "divided" between quarreling distant relatives, one being raised in the Netherlands
and the other in Germany
. As well as a national difference, they also undergo a sharp class differentiation. Lotte is raised by a rather affluent, middle-class intellectual family in Amsterdam, and Anna by a poor Catholic peasant family in a backward area, where in the 1930s the Nazi Party seems to offer your young people the only chance of social mobility.
During their teens the two girls seek to keep in contact, despite numerous and mounting obstacles. But the cataclysmic events of World War II
and the Holocaust sweep them in opposite directions.
Lotte becomes involved in the Dutch resistance and the hiding of endangered Jews, and falls in love with one of them - who is eventually caught by the Nazis and sent to his death.
Anna falls in love and marries a young Wehrmacht
soldier who is eventually assigned to the Waffen SS and is killed by an American shell in the last days of the war - and though not involved in any war crime
, shares in the post-war opprobrium of the SS. In the aftermath of the war the two sisters - both scarred by the war and grieving for their respective lovers - have an explosive meeting, ending with the Lotte vehemently disowning her "Nazi" sister Anna (who, in fact, had little sympathy with Nazi ideology).
Decades later, at their old age, they meet again accidentally at a spa and become reconciled.
The two girls/women are each played by three different actors, from the Netherlands and Germany respectively.
In Israel
, some critics objected to the film as "creating a moral equation between the killers and their victims". Still, it was shown successfully for several months in cinemas all over Israel. As the Jewish Chronicle was later to remark,
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, directed by Ben Sombogaart
Ben Sombogaart
Ben Sombogaart is a Dutch film and TV director.His film Twin Sisters was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.-Filmography:*The Boy Who Stopped Talking...
, based on the novel The Twins
The Twins (novel)
The Twins is the 2000 novel by Tessa de Loo about the sisters Lotte and Anna, who are separated at the age of six when their father dies.-Film, TV or theatrical adaptations:In 2003 the book was adapted to a film named Twin Sisters....
by Tessa de Loo, with a screenplay by Dutch actress and writer Marieke van der Pol.
The film tells the story of twin German sisters Lotte (Thekla Reuten
Thekla Reuten
Thekla Simona Gelsomina Reuten is a Dutch actress.Reuten was born in Bussum, Netherlands, the daughter of an Italian mother and a Dutch father. Reuten portrayed Duncan MacLeod's love interest Anna in Highlander: The Source, released in September 2007...
) and Anna (Nadja Uhl
Nadja Uhl
Nadja Uhl is a German actress.She studied at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy College of Music and Theatre in Leipzig between 1990 and 1994, beginning her career as a theatre actress at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam in 1994...
), separated at a young age. After the death of their parents, they are "divided" between quarreling distant relatives, one being raised in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and the other in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. As well as a national difference, they also undergo a sharp class differentiation. Lotte is raised by a rather affluent, middle-class intellectual family in Amsterdam, and Anna by a poor Catholic peasant family in a backward area, where in the 1930s the Nazi Party seems to offer your young people the only chance of social mobility.
During their teens the two girls seek to keep in contact, despite numerous and mounting obstacles. But the cataclysmic events of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Holocaust sweep them in opposite directions.
Lotte becomes involved in the Dutch resistance and the hiding of endangered Jews, and falls in love with one of them - who is eventually caught by the Nazis and sent to his death.
Anna falls in love and marries a young Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
soldier who is eventually assigned to the Waffen SS and is killed by an American shell in the last days of the war - and though not involved in any war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
, shares in the post-war opprobrium of the SS. In the aftermath of the war the two sisters - both scarred by the war and grieving for their respective lovers - have an explosive meeting, ending with the Lotte vehemently disowning her "Nazi" sister Anna (who, in fact, had little sympathy with Nazi ideology).
Decades later, at their old age, they meet again accidentally at a spa and become reconciled.
The two girls/women are each played by three different actors, from the Netherlands and Germany respectively.
In Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, some critics objected to the film as "creating a moral equation between the killers and their victims". Still, it was shown successfully for several months in cinemas all over Israel. As the Jewish Chronicle was later to remark,
A thought provoking film, raises big questions about responsibility for the Holocaust and what ordinary individuals do when faced with extraordinary evil".
Miramax FilmsMiramax FilmsMiramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
had also acquired the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
distribution rights to Twin Sisters and the film was given a limited US theatrical release in 2005.
The film was a 76th Academy Awards nominee for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmThe Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
of 2003.
Box office
The film received commercial release on May 6, 2005 and grossed $1,207 in the opening weekend in 1 theater. It went on to gross $1,563 domestically and $5,143,800 in the foreign markets for a worldwide total of $5,145,363.
External links