In “When We Were Sisters,” Swiss filmmaker Lisa Brühlmann decided to stand on both sides of the camera: as both an actor and a director.
“After drama school, I quickly decided to study filmmaking. I wanted to learn it so that no one could say: ‘She’s just an actor.’ I’ve never felt I wasn’t taken seriously as a director, because I took myself seriously,” she says.
“Being an actor makes me a better director, especially when I’m working with younger performers. For me, it all feeds into each other.”
While juggling both jobs was “exhausting,” the role of pregnant Monica, who goes on holidays with her 15-year-old daughter Valeska, new boyfriend Jaques and his own daughter Lena, was too irresistible to pass on.
“That’s a good way to put it. It’s a great female character, because she has this dark side. Monica desperately wants to be a good mother, but she feels she’s never good enough, at least according to her own standards, and that makes her aggressive. Many can relate to that feeling. She’s extreme, but I never wanted to judge her,” explains Brühlmann.
“I missed acting and I was literally ‘casting’ myself, trying to see if I was able to do it. It was a great experience, but I wouldn’t do it again. To be this self-destructive person for so long… It made my hair fall out.”
With “When We Were Sisters,” Brühlmann returns to the Zurich Film Festival, where she was previously awarded for “Blue My Mind.” Since then, she directed several episodes of acclaimed TV shows, including “Three Women,” based on Lisa Taddeo’s bestseller, and “Killing Eve,” for which she scored an Emmy nomination.
“I deliberately wanted to make a small film with a big impact,” she says. While more TV gigs are likely to follow first, she’s already developing another feature.
“It’s also about love and forgiveness. But it’s also the first time I really want to explore the male perspective and have a male lead,” she says.
“In ‘When We Were Sisters,’ I also wanted this man, Jaques, to feel like a three-dimensional character. I am not telling his entire story, but we see glimpses of it. He isn’t ready for a new relationship, even though they all want the same thing: They want to be happy.”
Soon, their new patchwork family is ripping at the seams.
“In this film, children are more mature than adults. That interested me. When I was a teenager, I also went on a holiday with my single mum and her new boyfriend. He had a daughter, too. These characters are fictional, but I know this kind of dynamic,” says Brühlmann.
“They are away: they can’t leave. These girls are at the mercy of their parents and of how they are feeling. They have to play along.”
Valeska and Lena (Paula Rappaport, Malou Mösli) find common ground rather quickly. The same can’t be said for their parents, whose fights get only more heated. As Jaques retreats, Monica keeps blaming her daughter.
“It can be funny for kids to see their parents fight – until it’s not. I didn’t want to push them, but they are already staring into the abyss. I am fascinated by human abysses. We all have them,” says the director.
“It becomes clear they are not right for each other. When things go wrong, Monica points fingers at everyone but herself. It’s her tragic flaw. At the end, Valeska realizes that she’s not the problem. It’s a small shift, but an important one.”
While a new family is at its center, “When We Were Sisters” started more as a film “about friendship and healing, and resilience,” Brühlmann says.
“Sometimes, friends give you more strength than your family. Looking for intimacy, Valeska starts to explore her sexuality, but she treads a fine line between what’s healthy and what’s not. Only through friendship with Lena does Valeska finally get the courage to say: ‘This is where I say ‘stop.’”
