Las gemelas que no hablaban

I knew nothing about June and Jennifer Gibbons before watching this. Apparently there have been other tellings of their story on the screen and stage, but it still feels like a fresh story. Beautifully shot and acted.

There's something relatable to their story. I definitely would see how long I could go without speaking as a kid, not that I ever made it more than a day or two. You see the young kids deal with being outsiders, bullying, and how happy they seem when they were isolated and using their imagination. I found it incredibly sad, wishing I could befriend them, hoping they succeed in their creative endeavors.

It's not the most direct, action filled storyline but I found myself invested throughout. I really enjoyed the cinematography, at times diving into their imaginations. Overall, it's something I would definitely watch again. It felt different than most things I've seen recently.

I can't believe that the IMDb rating is so low on this film, I think it will become a cult classic in a few years. The two young girls in this were amazing. The way they got across how these girls invested their time in this secrecy blanket - to keep themselves same from a White supremacy world full of prejudice and hate, they were truly the masters of their fate. No matter how hard others push and poke and press, they did not crack - they are an icon for resistance.

In a world that they created to hide and shelter, each other - my tears poured down.

What an incredible piece of filmmaking and the two older Gibbon's girl/women were outstanding leads and these two incredible actors deserved the BAFTA's they received. For me, the director did a fantastic job, which was really quite poetic. I was very engaged with this presentation and the interpretation of the twins lives, which used their own creativity, this is truly an inspiring film and needs more love than its currently getting.

The movie is captivating as an entertainment, but a quick google search informed me it bears little on reality, despite the filmmaker's claim it's based entirely on facts; and the facts call for anything but entertainment. The problem is that she avoids the horrific story of the sisters, making a movie out of their fantasies stemming from post-traumatic psychosis. During a talk she said she wanted to dispel the general narrative of the "evil twins" and tell the story of artists. Indeed they're incredibly perceptive if what is depicted is true: the film begins with psychological insights by the girls of which most adults would be incapable, and which I found hard to believe.

The director abruptly ended the talk on the note that the surviving sister is still "creative", having republished her book and written a short story. I didn't get a chance to ask whether she's made any real psychological progress. The movie depicts her looking happy while taking ballet lessons.

There are certainly interesting themes like the bond between the sisters and how one mysteriously died out of a wish to free her twin sister - again, I only became aware of that during the talk. The film itself is diluted by pop songs and such.

The story calls for a director like Haneke.

I am an identical twin. Understanding them was easy. I felt that bond as a child. The language they created, the words they conveyed to one another without speaking, the worlds they lived in, and the metaphorical dance they endlessly performed was something my twin and I had. The difference was that we grew out of that special closeness, the bubble that we inhabited eventually popped. The film takes us on a similar journey, flawlessly, as if the twins produced it themselves. The direction, script, acting, costumes, art direction, score, and cinematography all masterfully come together to recreate their perfectly delicate and complicated twin-dom. This is a brilliant film, a delicious character study that will touch you deeply... if you let it.

I went into this movie thinking it would be a story of triumph and redemption after a hard isolated life, and it was in a way... This story is much darker than I'd anticipated. These two girls had clear struggles and no one seemed to be able to help them. They lived in their own world of beautiful fantasy, while the world around them was cold and at many times disturbing. I almost stopped watching because I had not been ready to feel the strange unsettling nature of this film, but I'm very glad I didn't.

This story will stay with me for a good while.

Hard to watch at times. Fascinating. Heartbreaking. True.