“The Silent Twins” (2002) is a biographical drama film about Barbadian/Bajan immigrant twins June and Jennifer Gibbons, who were brought up in Wales and only interacted with each other. Their inner world was creative and vibrant in contrast to the dull, harsh world that they lived in. The film is an adaptation of Sunday Times journalist Marjorie Wallace’s book of the same title and the Gibbons’ diaries and books.
I considered seeing “The Silent Twins” because it features two black women leads, but was turned off because of rumors about Letitia Wright’s views on science (so disappointing). I am thrilled that I got assigned this film because though I heard about the twins, I did not realize that they were from a Barbadian family—their father was military, and they were born in Yemen and never lived in Barbados. If my mom chose a lightly different life, we would have been in the same circles though they are older. Even if I do not know them, I know more about the world that surrounds them, which is more than the average American viewer. I also loved director Agnieszka Smoczynska’s first feature, “The Lure” (2015), the first Polish musical about sister sirens in a horror revamp of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.
Enjoyment of “The Silent Twins” depends on what a viewer expects from cinematic biographies. If you want to learn more about the Gibbons twins, then you may leave feeling let down. There is no broader context. I only found out later that Broadmoor, where they were committed, was a notorious psychiatric facility, but the film does not show that. The film is impressionistic and surreal mostly told from the Gibbons’ point of view as a Polish director, Andrea Seigel, an American screenwriter, and a British journalist interpreted it. As creatives and women, the director and writers share a clear kinship and sympathy with the sisters’ rich interior lives. While the imagery wisely shows instead of tells how they were the only black people and most images of desire and esteem are white except for Whitney Houston, it is missing a certain je ne sais quoi.
The original story has so many complex elements about immigration as a member of the global majority to a predominantly white community (Wallace probably shared the closest experience since she was born in Kenya before moving to the UK), mental health, gender, and twins. By not explicitly talking about any of these issues even in passing, it creates the impressions that the twins were not conscious of these issues though affected. There is also an assumption that other than peers, the people with power around them either had their best interest at heart or were indifferent, not actively racist, sexist or xenophobic, which seems impossible. The reasons that the Gibbons’ twins chose not to speak to the rest of the world may not be fully known, but these factors had to play a role. For instance, “The Silent Twins” does suggest that they have a mental disorder. If they were speaking an actual language, they could speak, and any diagnosis based on selective mutism is just wrong. A quick Google search suggests their language was Bajan Creole, which I do not know or if I do, I don’t know that I do. If accurate, the film misses the fact that a combination of ignorance, xenophobia and racism played into the diagnosis. The language was just one that was not respected or recognized because it came from black people. I am not saying that they did not have a mental disability, but that an accurate diagnosis was difficult if inherent bias was a factor.
“The Silent Twins” is somewhat revolutionary because the depiction of the Gibbons’ sisters is only focused on them, and they are freed from the constraints usually imposed on stories about people who are minorities in some way. They are three dimensional characters, not adhering to respectability politics. They are unlikeable, violent, reckless, self-absorbed, and self-destructive. It feels less like a film about twins, and more of a horror film about dopplegangers who forged a tenuous truce that submerges their impulse to destroy the other. When the film depicts their creative work, it reminded me of “Marwencol” (2010), but was more disturbing. Think children’s drawings after they suffer from abuse, which they did from at least their peers at school. The depiction of their adolescence reminded me of “Chewing Gum” (2015-2017) except no one saves them from themselves. The world is far crueler. Smoczynska is effective from the opening credits in creating a claustrophobic, cacophonous world that we want to escape from and thus instantly feel the closeness and oppressiveness of the sisters’ relationship. It makes for an unpleasant viewing experience that we want to escape. The trajectory of the film is from enmeshment to individuation. A part of me wonders if in the future this film will be considered one of the greats for being uncompromising and unflinching in the face of so many moments that distance the viewer from relating to the protagonists.
If one thinks of the Gibbons’ sisters as the inspiration for “The Silent Twins,” instead of about them, then viewed the film using the same framework as “The Lure,” the stories are quite similar. Two sisters who do not belong in a world are only in danger when they try to conform to it, especially in matters of romance and sexuality. They are seen in terms of a morality that the director does not cosign and their nature is inherently dangerous to a system that demands enthusiastic exploitation and subjugation. Smoczynska uses the same oneiric logic to depict the sisters’ rich inner life. In both stories, the sister in love with her art survives.
Is this lens appropriation and not a faithful rendering in spirit? Maybe. As a viewer, this parallel is problematic because while I can relate to a siren/mermaid, it is ok for them to be inherently monstrous since they are not human beings and fantasy creatures whereas these sisters are human beings who are already seen as inherently dangerous as a form of bias. This bias, whether due to their race, gender or mental ability, resulted in disproportionate detention time in a mental facility as related to their actual crime, which was serious, but caused no physical harm to a person. I am not saying that Smoczynska sees them this way. She obviously relates to them, but by replicating this dynamic, she is missing the spirit of the story and the real-life dangers that they faced. Monstrous women can be seen as aspirational and rebellious, but monstrous black women end up jailed and dead. No one is leaving “The Silent Twins” wishing that they could be like them for a second regardless of their creativity or close relationship.
“The Silent Twins” excelled at comparing and contrasting how the sisters saw themselves, their surroundings, their adventures and their aspirations with the real world. Jennifer sees her romantic aspirations as an Eden whereas June and the audience see it in a harsher light-exploitative, volatile, pathetic. It is heartbreaking that their actual limitations and options created a chasm with their desires and self-image. Think “Charly” (1968) except sadder and real. It could be a coming of age movie, but it feels like what it is: a tragedy, a coming of death movie.
