LITTLE SISTER/ SCHWESTERLEIN
Germany, 2020, 99 minutes, Colour.
Nina Hoss, Lars Eidinger, Marthe Keller, Jens Albinus.
Directed by Stephanie Chuat, Veronique Remond.
Nina Hoss is one of the foremost acting talents in Germany over the last decade or more (Barbara, Phoenix, Gold). Lars Eidinter is also a strong emerging talent (appearing as the concentration camp officer in Persian Lessons). The two appear as brother and sister, twins, two minutes difference between them, Lisa been two minutes younger than Sven, and she is the Little Sister.
On the one hand, this is a very interesting drama and highlighting the relationship between brother and sister, the nature of the bonds, each experiencing the others joys and, here, especially their pain and suffering. It also highlights that each twin can become obsessive about the other.
But, this is also a film about terminal cancer. On that level, the film has many moving moments, the physical pain, the need for transplants, the little sister wanting to help her brother and becoming more and more preoccupied with his health, at the expense of her relationship with her husband and children. There are many scenes in hospital, in darkened rooms, in doctor’s offices.
At one stage, Sven comes out of hospital and is taken to stay with their mother, a woman of moods who is not willing to take responsibility for her sick son (Marthe Keller).
Sven, however, is allowed to stay with his sister and her family. They are based in Switzerland where the husband is a teacher with strong responsibilities who is being offered tenure of his position for the next five years. This is a challenge, of course, for Lisa. Does she want to stay in Switzerland for another five years? Is she at home there? Her husband and children at home there? And what of Sven and his illness and the future?
There is a dramatic moment when Sven wants to go hang gliding and does so with his brother-in-law only to have a panic attack, a physical collapse and return to hospital, and a return to Berlin.
So, while the film traces the development of the disease, Sven’s decline, Lisa continues to hope that a theatre director with whom Sven worked for many years, especially in the production of Hamlet, will restage the play. In the meantime, she begins to write a monologue for her brother based on Hansel and Gretel.
There is a further complication for Sven as he is a gay man, frequents gay bars.
The challenge to the audience is how much they identify with Sven and his cancer experience, how much they identify with Lisa and her obsessive loving bond with her brother and her compulsion for care.
1. A contemporary human drama, German drama?
2. The cancer themes? And the theme of bonds between twins?
3. The importance of Berlin, homes and apartments, the locations, the theatre, the streets? The contrast with the Swiss mountains, home, the teaching Institute, the hang gliding? The operatic score? Piano accompaniment?
4. Sven and Lisa, two minutes between them? Lisa as the little sister? Yet her having the stronger personality? The opening, her experiencing the transplant? Sven and his illness, the cancer, the rooms, the response of the doctors? His getting out of hospital, going to their mother? Her fussiness and hesitation? He is wearing the wigs and looking askew? Going to the theatre, meeting the director, their past career with Hamlet, his hopes, the restaging? His being transferred to Switzerland, the episode of the hang gliding and his becoming ill, the dangers? Lisa’s angry reaction? The rejection of the transplant? The director visiting, the decision about not putting on the play? Lisa and her imagining Hansel and Gretel? Writing a play, monologue for Sven? Going to the gay clubs, the sexual encounter? Memories of his past lover, the phone calls? His death?
5. Lisa, strong, writing plays? Interaction with her mother, her mother’s fussiness, the cake, worries at home? Her looking out to Sven’s home, her concern, his gay friend, performing Hamlet, her insistence? Memories of the past, her life in Switzerland, her husband, children, her teaching, the social life, the issue of the five year contract, her wanting to be in Berlin, but her compulsion to save Sven? Writing Hansel and Gretel, her hopes? The director’s visit, her angry outbursts? Martin, taking the job, her stubbornness? Self-preoccupation, especially the bond with Sven? Going back to Berlin, Martin and the children, the phone call about an abduction? Her quietly sitting in the square, the composition, reading it with Sven? Sitting quietly by, his death?
6. Her mother, stories about the father, fidelity and infidelity, fussing, baking, finding it too much? The grandchildren?
7. The director, the past, putting on the play, his decisions, his realism about Sven’s health? Lisa’s attack?
8. The range of doctors, the discussions, the final options?
9. Martin, in himself, a good man, loving Lisa, the children and their identifying with Sven? The issue of the contract? Lisa difficult and intolerant? His going to Berlin, taking the children, bringing them back?
10. The final close-up of her and her face and the audience experiencing her grief?
11. Close-up of Lisa, the audience working out what her future might be?
