Recently a Dutch documentary was shown on Israeli television destroying the image of the Dutch as fierce resistance people, saviors of their Jews and Dutch non-cooperation with German authorities during WW2. For most Jewish people this came as quiet a shock, because the image of the Dutch caring for its Jewish people was well established in the minds of Jews living in Israel and the U.S. Of course many were saved, but a lot were betrayed also. (Unlike say the Danish Jews). The novel and movie De Tweeling / Twin Sisters carefully builds the image the Dutch want to have of WW2 and themselves, so it defines in a strange way its national identity.
Two twin sisters are separated very young as their father dies. One ends up in an upper class family in Holland, the other in a farming family in Germany. This setup is used to tell parallel story lines of events before, during and after the war: We have the Austrian soldier joining the SS, a Jew going off to the concentration camps, a Jewish family finding shelter for the war and razzias, Polish forced laborers in Germany, the Nazis (over-clichéd but that fits the tone here). At some points the sisters meet again, only to be separated by other events. The story is a framework around the last meeting the two sisters have, telling the story of their lives.
It moves unnecessarily slow and has a leisurely pace. The direction is straightforward and on the level of a TV-movie without much imagination. However there are moments of good storytelling, as a new storyline is sometimes introduced without explaining too much (e.g. Anna throwing away some baby cloths; Lotte is married but we have to derive that ourselves).
The acting is sometimes disappointing: Especially Thekla Reuten as Lotte is unable to carry the movie having one of the lead roles; this applies also to her male counterpart, Jeroen Spitzenberger as David. Overall the German actors are somewhat better (experienced) than the Dutch ones.
When seen as a simple WW2-story De Tweeling is an average movie suitable for a large audience of all ages. But the book is more interesting as this is not the best adaptation from a novel.
Two twin sisters are separated very young as their father dies. One ends up in an upper class family in Holland, the other in a farming family in Germany. This setup is used to tell parallel story lines of events before, during and after the war: We have the Austrian soldier joining the SS, a Jew going off to the concentration camps, a Jewish family finding shelter for the war and razzias, Polish forced laborers in Germany, the Nazis (over-clichéd but that fits the tone here). At some points the sisters meet again, only to be separated by other events. The story is a framework around the last meeting the two sisters have, telling the story of their lives.
It moves unnecessarily slow and has a leisurely pace. The direction is straightforward and on the level of a TV-movie without much imagination. However there are moments of good storytelling, as a new storyline is sometimes introduced without explaining too much (e.g. Anna throwing away some baby cloths; Lotte is married but we have to derive that ourselves).
The acting is sometimes disappointing: Especially Thekla Reuten as Lotte is unable to carry the movie having one of the lead roles; this applies also to her male counterpart, Jeroen Spitzenberger as David. Overall the German actors are somewhat better (experienced) than the Dutch ones.
When seen as a simple WW2-story De Tweeling is an average movie suitable for a large audience of all ages. But the book is more interesting as this is not the best adaptation from a novel.