Section: POLSKIE HORYZONTY: The Female Gaze

THE SILENT TWINS

THE SILENT TWINS

Agnieszka Smoczyńska
PL/US/UK, 2022, 113 Min

Inseparable twins June and Jennifer Gibbons live with their parents and siblings in provincial Wales in the 1970s. The family comes from Barbados and the  schoolgirls experience the usual everyday racism, but basically grow up sheltered. Nevertheless, one day the unimaginable happens: they fall silent. Teachers, doctors and psychologists struggle with them, but not a word passes their lips. Individual conversations, expulsion from school, home schooling - no measure is able to make them speak again.

But behind the wall of silence lies an exuberant imagination. In the protective four walls of their colorful children's room, the sisters create their own world of puppet theater, radio shows, songs and stories. There, language is no obstacle; they chat with each other constantly – what's more, they develop literary ambitions and begin to write down their stories. The children become teenagers who are inspired by adventures for their texts – not always within the limits of legality and still in silence. From society's perspective, such rule breakers are no longer acceptable.

Agnieszka Smoczyńska does not attempt a realistic, historically accurate reconstruction of the authentic story, but rather invites you on a roller coaster ride through the imagination of girls who break out of the social norm. With bubbling visual ideas, in the sound of the era and offset by virtuoso animations by Barbara Rupik, we may not learn to understand the couple, but at least partially feel them.

Text: Rainer Mende

 

A moving story with a star-studded cast - including Letitia Wright (Black Panther, Death on the Nile) and Tamara Lawrance (Invasion, Kindred).

Drehbuch
ANDREA SEIGEL
Kamera
JAKUB KIJOWSKI P.S.C.
Schnitt
AGNIESZKA GLIŃSKA P.S.M
Musik
MARCIN MACUK & ZUZANNA WROŃSKA
Darsteller
Letitia Wright
Tamara Lawrance
Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn
Jack Bandeira
Martin Hugh Henley
Jodhi May
Treva Etienne
Declan Joyce
Produzent
BEN PUGH, EWA PUSZCZYŃSKA
Agnieszka Smoczyńska

Agnieszka Smoczyńska - Agnieszka Smoczyńska is a graduate of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, Poland and has also participated in master classes at the Wajda Film School. She received a scholarship from The Minister of Cultureand National Heritage for outstanding artistic achievement, the “My Talent for Poland” prize and the Golden Pen,awarded by the President of Poland. In 2015 her first feature film The Lure experimented with the musical and horror genres and was recognized as the best debut at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Smoczyńska was hailedas the “Discovery of the year” at the Polish Film Awards. The Lure has received numerous awards at festivals worldwide, including Fantasporto, Sofia, Montreal, Vilniusand the Sundance Film Festival, where she received the Special Jury Prize for “a unique vision and design”, and subsequently released in countries such as the US, Japan and Taiwan (including a Criterion Collection Blu-ray release). In 2017, Smoczyńska was invited by the Sydney FilmFestival, Variety and European Film Promotion to participatein the “European Cinema: Ten Women Filmmakers to Watch“program. She is a recipient of the Global Filmmaking Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

more movies you may be interested in

AUTUMN GIRL

BO WE MNIE JEST SEKS

THE LURE

CÓRKI DANCINGU