Twin Sisters (2002)

One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

two sisters. two different worlds. a war. it is a chronicle of a century drama. a story. or just a parable. a delicate trip in heart of profound pain. without verdict. without explanations. only pictures. a meeting. and desire to be happy. chain of tragedies, it is not sad or cruel. only realistic. a lesson about existences and need of the other. and extraordinary end. great virtue - it not becomes a pledge or moral. only a delicate portrait. for society, nature of joy, ash of a time, pain of many families and sketch of reconciliation with the other. with yourself. it is beautiful. and profound. touching. and delicate. a lesson of history in a different manner.

I noticed that the run time of this movie is listed as 137 minutes on IMDb. However, the DVD I watched was only 118 minutes. So, I have to wonder what I missed in this American DVD release?! I hate when films are chopped to pieces. Stupid, stupid, stupid DVD.While I cannot stand that some moron would consider chopping this film to pieces, I must say that what's left is exceptional. Very original, very touching and very well made."Twin Sisters" begins in the 1920s. After their parents died, two 6 year-old twin sisters are homeless. Oddly, one goes to live with a poor uncle and aunt in Germany and the other to live with well to do family in Holland. And, it gets more strange, as both new sets of parents apparently hate the other and want the girls to have nothing to do with each other! And, since the one going to Holland was sickly, the sister in Germany assumes her sister died as she heard nothing from her--though in reality, the sisters letters were stolen by her new parents! Years pass. WWII has just begun when the sister in Holland discovers all the stolen letters. She learns where her sister is and goes to visit her in Nazi Germany. The trip goes very well--until the German sister makes an offhanded antisemitic comment about how her sister's fiancé looks like a Jew. The Dutch sister stomps off and the German sister has no idea what's occurred--nor does she understand why her sister will have nothing to do with her. In reality, the Dutch lady is engaged to a Jew...and the coming invasion of her country eventually leads to his being sent to a concentration camp.In the meantime, the German sister meets a soldier and falls in love with him. Eventually, they marry and are quite happy. But, he's killed in the war. He also happened to be an officer in the SS--the same evil organization that committed mass genocide.What will happen with these two sisters now that so much has happened? See the film and find out for yourself.Overall, the film is brilliantly written, acted and directed. It's not surprising, then, that it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It didn't win--probably because it was one of the strongest years I've seen for this category. Plus, "Barbarian Invasions" (the winner) was an incredibly great film. Regardless, "Twin Sisters" is well worth seeing and haunting. However, the subject matter is a bit intense and not appropriate for younger audiences.

Twins Lotte and Anna are separated as children, one to live with a wealthy family in Holland, the other with a poor farmer in Germany. When the girls are in their early twenties WWII begins and the sisters find themselves on opposite sides of the war. Because of this, the sisters to not speak until they meet again as adults, where they discover that although their life experiences have been vastly different, there are similarities.This film is important as it shows how families are torn apart by war and ideology. The sisters loose touch with each other because each has been indoctrinated with different positions on WWII. Overall, it's an excellent film which shows the personal side of WWII. The dialog is in both Dutch and German, which makes it interesting for speakers of those languages. English subtitles are available on the US version of the DVD

Two twin sisters Lothe and Anna, born in prewar Germany (1920) are separated at the age of eight 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. The one's poisoned by the anti-, the other by the pro German news and propaganda, we watch these beautiful children grow and both their life's being build on what they go through, what they see, what they hear and there conclusions about that. "Accidentilly" they finally meet on "neutral ground" the flashbacks make you love them both and understand both the women and the choices they've made. As older woman, Anna says it beautifully simple "if we as sisters cannot solve this problem, who can?" and as she is dying to hear her sisters forgiveness, she gets both.A film which shows us that judging the other side is not as easy as it might seem.