Brothers and Sisters The Ladies (by Christina Voros) and Brothers (by Isabel Grünwald)

Two of this year’s International Student Competition films tell the story of siblings: The Ladies (Christina Voros) and Brothers (Isabel Grünwald). Both young female directors chose a pair of elderly siblings as the focus of their modest stories.

The Ladies shows, in snapshots, the everyday lives of Mimi and Vali, two Hungarian costume designers. Both tell a bittersweet story in broken English: Times have changed; young people don’t need tailors anymore and their regular (elderly) customers can’t leave their houses as often as they used to. Like most old people, their past is something they hold onto at home in the form of clothes, pictures, and dusty objects.

They have vivid memories of the glory days as well as little conflicts, jealousies and sorrows, but it’s all in the past and now all they have is each other. Voros meets them in their messy little home, lets them talk about their dreams and disappointments, and listens to them comparing themselves and complaining about each other. Within a few minutes this film shows us love, companionship and the human condition itself in a very gentle way.

Based on the everyday life of two old brothers on their farm, Brothers is almost a dark counterpart to The Ladies. Fritz and Heiner Zuber have to share the farm after their mother’s death, dividing labour as if they were a traditional married couple: Fritz cooks and does the housework while Heiner takes care of the farmland. Meanwhile, their mutual dislike is obvious; they don’t have a word to say to one another anymore. Grünwald manages to capture their solitude visually; the empty landscape outside mirrors the huge distance between them on a small coffee table.

Nothing is closer to the visualization of the Doppelganger myth than similar-looking siblings. A Doppelganger is a sign of bad luck, in literature as well as popular culture; it foreshadows the death of the person who sees it. Interestingly enough, Doppelgangers are always male. Is this perhaps the curse of the brothers; that they recognize approaching death in each other’s faces?

Evrim Kaya