''The Silent Twins'' is a 2022 internationally co-produced

biographical drama A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a Nonfiction, non-fictional or History, historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. The ...

film about the twin sisters,

June and Jennifer Gibbons June Gibbons (born 11 April 1963) and Jennifer Gibbons (11 April 1963 – 9 March 1993) were identical twins who grew up in Wales. They became known as "The Silent Twins", since they only communicated with each other. They wrote works of ficti ...

, who were institutionalized at

Broadmoor Hospital Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...

following years of silence and teenage rebellion. It is directed by

Agnieszka Smoczyńska Agnieszka Smoczyńska (; born 18 May 1978) is a Polish film and television writer and director. She is an alumnus of the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice. Her debut feature film, '' The Lure'' (2015), was re-released by The Crite ...

from a screenplay by

Andrea Seigel Andrea Seigel (born October 28, 1979) is an American novelist and screenwriter. To date, she has published four novels. Seigel was born in Anaheim, California, and grew up in Irvine, California. She graduated from Woodbridge High School. She ...

, who adapted the book of the same name by

Marjorie Wallace Marjorie Wallace (born January 23, 1954) is an American actress, television host, model and beauty queen. In 1973, she made history as the first woman from the United States to be crowned Miss World, but just 104 days later, pageant officials ...

. The film stars

Letitia Wright Letitia Michelle Wright (born 31 October 1993) is a Guyanese-British actress. She began her career with guest roles in the television series '' Top Boy'', '' Coming Up'', '' Chasing Shadows'', ''Humans'', ''Doctor Who'', and '' Black Mirror''. ...

Tamara Lawrance Tamara Naomi Lawrance (born 1994)Bowie-Sell, Daisy ''WhatsOnStage''. 14 February 2017. is a British actress. She is known for her performances as Prince Harry's republican girlfriend in the 2017 BBC television film ''King Charles III'', and as Vi ...

Nadine Marshall Nadine Panchita Marshall (born 30 September 1972) is an English television, stage, and radio actress. Education and career She studied at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and is best known for her performance as Sally in the British tel ...

Treva Etienne Treva Etienne is an English actor and filmmaker. Etienne guest starred in the ''BBC drama'' '' Death In Paradise'', the CBS spinoff '' Criminal Minds Beyond Borders'', and the CW fantasy/horror ''Supernatural''. He has a leading role in the indie ...

Michael Smiley Michael Smiley (born 1963) is a Northern Irish comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films ''Kill List'' (2011) and ''The Lobster'' (2015). Early life Smiley was born in 1963 in Belfast and grew up in Holywood with a ...

, and

Jodhi May Jodhi Tania May (''née'' Hakim-Edwards; 8 May 1975) is a British actress. She remains the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, for ''A World Apart'' (1988). Her other film appearances include ''The Last ...

. ''The Silent Twins'' had its world premiere at the

2022 Cannes Film Festival The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is an upcoming film festival scheduled to take place from 17 to 28 May 2022. The festival will see a tribute to actor Tom Cruise, whose film '' Top Gun: Maverick'' is due to premiere at the festival. The off ...

, under the ''

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

'' section, on May 24, 2022, was released in the United States on September 16, 2022, by

Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in th ...

, and was released in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2022, by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

Plot

Feeling isolated from their unwelcoming community,

turn inward and reject communication with everyone but each other, retreating into a fantasy world of artistic inspiration and adolescent desires. After a spree of vandalism inspired by an American teenager they both idolize, the girls are summarily sentenced to

, an infamous psychiatric hospital, where they face the choice to separate and survive or die together.

Cast

June Gibbons June Gibbons (born 11 April 1963) and Jennifer Gibbons (11 April 1963 – 9 March 1993) were identical twins who grew up in Wales. They became known as "The Silent Twins", since they only communicated with each other. They wrote works of ficti ...

** Leah Mondesir-Simmonds as young June Gibbons *

Jennifer Gibbons June Gibbons (born 11 April 1963) and Jennifer Gibbons (11 April 1963 – 9 March 1993) were identical twins who grew up in Wales. They became known as "The Silent Twins", since they only communicated with each other. They wrote works of ficti ...

** Eva-Arianna Baxter as young Jennifer Gibbons *

as Gloria Gibbons *

as Aubrey Gibbons *

as Tim Thomas *

* Jack Bandeira as Wayne Kennedy *

Kinga Preis Kinga Anna Preis (born 31 August 1971, in Wrocław) is a Polish film and theatre actress. Life and career She graduated from Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in 1996. In 2006, she received the Zbigniew Cybulski Award for best young act ...

Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn is an English actress known for playing the lead role in the 2020 movie ''Lovers Rock''. She was named one of the 2020 ''Screen International'' Stars of Tomorrow. Early life St. Aubyn was born in England to Jamaican-Cuban ...

as Greta Gibbons * Tony Richardson as Dr. John Rees * Declan Joyce as George Kennedy

Production

In February 2020, it was announced that

and

has been cast as twin sisters

in the film ''The Silent Twins'', based on the 1986 book of the same name by

, with

set to direct and

set to write the screenplay, it marks Smoczyńska's English-language film debut. On April 8, 2021 it was announced that

acquired US distribution rights to the film while parent company

took international distribution rights.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

wrapped in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Release

''The Silent Twins'' had its world premiere at the

, under the ''

'' section, on May 24, 2022. It was released in the United States by

on September 16, 2022, and was released in the United Kingdom by

on December 9. It also screened in the 'World Cinema' section of 27th Busan International Film Festival in October 2022.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

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 ...

, 70% of 84 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "Although it struggles to really get inside the true story that inspired it, ''The Silent Twins'' is still a well-acted and poignant dramatization of actual events."

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 ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * Marjorie Wallace
The Silent Twins (1986)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silent Twins, The American biographical drama films Focus Features films Universal Pictures films English-language Polish films 2020s English-language films 2022 biographical drama films 2020s American films 2020s British films British biographical drama films