''My Little Sister'' (german: Schwesterlein) is a 2020 Swiss
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
written and directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond. It was selected to compete for the
Golden Bear
The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.
History
The winn ...
in the main competition section at the
70th Berlin International Film Festival
The 70th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 20 February to 1 March 2020. It was the first under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival heads, business administration director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director C ...
. It was selected as the Swiss entry for the
Best International Feature Film at the
93rd Academy Awards
The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, 2021 ...
, but it was not nominated.
Plot
A gifted playwright pushes her twin sibling, a famous stage actor, back into the limelight though he's suffering from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
.
Cast
*
Nina Hoss
Nina Hoss (; born 7 July 1975) is a German stage and film actress.
Early life
Hoss was born in Stuttgart, West Germany. Her father, , was a German trade unionist and politician (member of the Bundestag with The Greens). Her mother, , was an ac ...
as Lisa
*
Lars Eidinger
Lars Eidinger (; born 21 January 1976) is a German actor. Eidinger started his career at Deutsches Theater in 1997. Before his breakthrough, he played minor roles in German television shows like ''Schloss Einstein'' (2002) and '' Berlin, Berlin ...
as Sven
*
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
as Kathy
*
Jens Albinus
Jens Albinus (born 3 January 1965 in Bogense) is a Danish actor and director.''Usikker på indersiden. Interview: Jens Albinus'' Jyllands-Posten, 16 December 2005, Must, Side 28
Selected filmography
* ''Anton'' (1996) – as Lærer, a teacher
...
as Martin
Reception
On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Led by first-rate performances from its stars, My Little Sister explores familial bonds and terminal illness with honesty and sensitivity". On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a
weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' called ''My Little Sister'' a "fierce and fraught family drama", while Wendy Ide of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' called the film a "terrific, prickly sibling drama".
Ty Burr
Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...
of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called the film "a bracing trip", and "a work of daredevil nerve that serves as its own reward".
According to Anna Smith of ''
Deadline Hollywood
''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...
'', the film is "moving without being mawkish".
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
2020 drama films
2020 films
2020 LGBT-related films
2020s German-language films
Swiss drama films
Swiss LGBT-related films
LGBT-related drama films
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