Three Identical Strangers
| Three Identical Strangers | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tim Wardle |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Tim Cragg |
| Edited by | Michael Harte |
| Music by | Paul Saunderson |
| Distributed by | Neon |
Release dates |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Box office | $12.3 million[1] |
Three Identical Strangers is a 2018 documentary film directed by Tim Wardle and starring Edward Galland, David Kellman and Robert Shafran. It examines a set of American triplets who were adopted as six-month-old infants by separate families, unaware that each child had brothers. Combining archival footage, re-enacted scenes, and present-day interviews, the documentary reveals how the brothers discovered one another at age 19 and thereafter sought to understand the circumstances of their separation.[2][3]
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival,[4] where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling.[5]
Premise
The three brothers were born to a single mother on July 12, 1961. They were actually quadruplets; the fourth brother died at birth.[6] At the direction of a Jewish adoption agency and psychiatrists Viola W. Bernard and Peter B. Neubauer, the three infants were intentionally placed with families at different economic levels — one blue-collar, one middle-class, and one wealthy — who had each adopted a baby girl from the same agency two years earlier. The brothers were raised by their adoptive families as David Kellman, Eddy Galland, and Bobby Shafran, respectively.[7][8] They discovered one another through a coincidental college connection in 1980 and became very close, but all three struggled with depression throughout their lives, which ultimately led to Galland's suicide in 1995.[8]
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 140 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Surreal and surprising, Three Identical Strangers effectively questions the nature of reality and identity."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[10]
Related works
The Neubauer twin experiment was first publicized in a 1995 New Yorker article by investigative journalist Lawrence Wright,[11] who appears in the film. The same, never-completed twin study was the subject of the 2007 memoir Identical Strangers[12] and the 2017 documentary The Twinning Reaction.[13]
See also
References
- ^ "Three Identical Strangers (2018)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 3, 2018.
- ^ Brook, Tom (July 12, 2018). "Film tells of secret study of triplets". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ Stewart, Sara (June 23, 2018). "Separated-at-birth triplets met tragic end after shocking psych experiment". New York Post. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
- ^ Ryan, Patrick (June 26, 2018). "'Three Identical Strangers': How triplets separated at birth became the craziest doc of 2018". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (January 27, 2018). "Sundance Film Festival 2018 winners list". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ "Eddy Galland, Robert Shafran and David Kellman said Friday..." United Press International. November 26, 1980. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
- ^ Saul, Stephanie (January 31, 1998) [First published October 18, 1997]. "Separated Triplets Had Been Studied Since Birth". Newsday. Retrieved August 28, 2018 – via Greensboro News & Record.
- ^ a b Kaufman, Amy (July 1, 2018). "The surreal, sad story behind the acclaimed new doc 'Three Identical Strangers'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ "Three Identical Strangers (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
- ^ "Three Identical Strangers Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
- ^ Wright, Lawrence (August 7, 1995). "Double Mystery". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
- ^ Flaim, Denise (November 25, 2007). "Lost and Found: Twin sister separated at birth are reunited and work toward a new relationship". Racine Journal Times. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
- ^ Shinseki, Lori. "The Twinning Reaction". Firehorse Pictures. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
