Twin Sisters (2002)

In a nutshell, this Oscar-nominated drama from the Netherlands follows twins Anna (Sina Richardt, Nadja Uhl, Gudrun Okras) and Lotte (Julia Koopmans, Thekla Reuten, Ellen Vogel) who are suddenly orphaned and torn apart in 1920s Germany and sent to live with two different relatives. Anna lives on her uncle's farm in Germany, and Lotte with her rich aunt in Holland. The sisters must struggle to reconcile the differences of their youth when they meet as adults during World War II and again in their old age.It was heartbreaking to see the two sides of the same family running down the other: the farmers calling the others snobs, and the farmers called barbarians; all in front of the children. The farmer's wife even told Anna that Lotte was dead.Despite the cruelty of both families, the girls meet again as young women. The love that was there when they were six has not diminished one bit.Then comes WWII and they are split again over politics and war. Anna ends up marrying an SS Officer (Roman Knizka), while Lotte's fiancé (Jeroen Spitzenberger) is in Auswitch.The sisters broke off contact over events of the war until old age, when they reconciled before Anna's death.An outstanding story of love.Piotr Kukla's cinematography was excellent, as was direction by Ben Sombogaart.

Outline of Story:Two twin sisters Lotte and Anna, born in pre-war Germany (1920) are separated at the age of six when there last parent and father dies. Because the Dutch and German relatives "themselves are already at war", both the children grow up in a totally different environment, different language, -parents, -family and -friends. Lotte, although quite ill, is the luckier of the two, as she is taken in by distant family in the Netherlands, where she is lovingly nursed back to health. Anna, on the other hand, finds herself claimed by a harsh uncle and aunt to live and work on their farm, where punishing treatment makes her existence miserable.For many years the girls try to contact each other but both families are able to intercept their letters and to make them believe that the other sister is dead.We follow the two sisters as they mature, including the long-awaited first reunion, which is a happy moment, in Anna's elegant Countess's surroundings. But when Lotte observes German dinner guests criticizing a cursing the Jews she flees as her soon to be Husband is Jewish. The two sisters find it difficult to separate the losses of their husbands: Lotte blames Anna's siding with the Nazis as a cause of David's death. Anna defends Martin's role as one of idealism that had nothing to do with the genocide of the Jews. They part, seemingly to never meet again.But as old women bedraggled Anna seeks out the elegant Lotte and the two come to understand their opposite opinions of what the war did to destroy their happiness. The movie ends in the two elderly Lotte and Anna spending a night in the Bush lands. Sadly Anna dies in Lotte's arms.

Apparently "De Tweeling" or "The Twins" has been based on a very popular Dutch novel. I'm not able to compare the movie with the book, because I haven't read it yet, but I can and will tell you something about this movie and how I feel about it.The movie starts in the 1920's when, after the death of their parents, the two twin sisters are separated at the age of six. One of them will stay in Germany where she'll have to work hard on her uncle's farm, the other sister will live with her upper middle class Dutch aunt and uncle in Holland. For many years the girls try to contact each other but both families are able to intercept their letters and to make them believe that the other sister is dead. While they both grow older and the Second World War affects their lives in a very profound way, both try to renew their bond several times, but fail time after time because of different reasons. Only at the end of their lives, they are able to forgive and forget...Even though the movie has its weaker moments, overall this is some very nice and touching cinema. Especially the beginning and the end of the movie are hard to forget. And even though I'm not Dutch myself (I'm from their 'little neighbor' in the South), I could easily recognize the feelings between the Germans and the Dutch. I don't know if anybody has his or her doubts about that, but the movie exactly shows it as it was during those days (not that I experienced it myself, I was born more than 30 years after the war).If you are looking for an alternative war movie, than this is certainly something for you. By alternative I mean that you won't see any soldiers fighting or bombs exploding, but you'll get an idea of how life was for the civilians who had to try to survive during the German occupation. Another reason why I call it alternative is because the movie does not only cover the small time period of 1938-1944, the period in which Europe was in the war. It tells the story between the 1920's and the present day. What might be a bit confusing from time to time is the fact that the actors constantly switch between German and Dutch (especially at the end of the movie). Of course, when you don't understand anything of both languages and have to read the subtitles, you won't even notice. But anyway, I must congratulate the Dutch with this movie (as a Belgian this hurts a bit, hahaha). With this one, they have a nice movie they can be proud of. I give it a 7.5/10.

This is a must see movie, which changes from the vast quantity of Hollywood WW II movies that already exist. De Tweeling is based on a book by Tessa Loo, and produced by a Dutch/Luxembourgish crew. The movie plays in the Netherlands and Luxembourg, although they will want to make you believe it is Belgium. This is the only reason why I haven't rated it with a ten out of ten. The movie perfectly reflects the great and small drama's that certainly happened during the war, and grasps the public's attention from beginning till the end. De Tweeling has been nominated for the Oscar's in 2004 but alas did not get this great reward.