Based on the 1986 book by Marjorie Wallace,The Silent Twins, the film recounts the strange story of June and Jennifer Gibbons (played byLetitia Wrightand Tamara Lawrence). The identicaltwinsborn in 1963 to Caribbean immigrants grew up in Wales and were bullied and treated as outcasts due to their heritage. The two developed a unique language spoken only by each other and refused to talk to others. See logline andtrailerbelow:
THE SILENT TWINS is the astounding true story of twin sisters who only communicated with one another. As a result, they created a rich, fascinating world to escape the reality of their own lives.
The film was previously described as “the haunting story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, twins from the only Black family in a small town in Wales in the 1970s and 80s. Feeling isolated from that unwelcoming community, the pair turn inward and reject communication with everyone but each other, retreating into their own fantasy world of artistic inspiration and adolescent desires. After a spree of vandalism inspired by an American boy they both idolize, the girls, now teenagers, are summarily sentenced to Broadmoor, an infamous psychiatric hospital, where they face the choice to separate and survive or die together.”
There is More to This Disturbing Story Than Unique Language and Psychiatric Treatment
By age 11, June and Jennifer began walking in sync around town, their steps in perfect unison. However, if anyone looked at them, they would totally freeze until the passersby looked away. They would become catatonic when separated, which caused great concern among their parents and teachers. Despite their bond, the sisters seemingly held a lot of disdain for one another based on their disturbing diary entries. June once wrote that Jennifer was driving her insane, and she feared her greatly. Jennifer described June as her shadow, writing: “Without my shadow, would I die? Without my shadow, would I gain life, be free or left to die?”
Due to their increasingly violent behavior, the twins were institutionalized. Reports indicate June once tried to drown Jennifer in a river, and Jennifer tried to strangle June with a radio cord. In 1981, after committing several crimes, the twins were committed to Broadmoor Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Crowthorne, England.
In March 1993, the Gibbons twins were about to be transported to Caswell Clinic, a lower security institution in Wales. While drinking tea, Jennifer stated she “had decided to die” so that June could live a normal life. Reportedly, Jennifer slept the entire time during the travel to the new institution. When they arrived, she was unresponsive and later pronounced dead. The cause of death was listed as inflammation of the heart even though no clear cause of inflammation was found. After Jennifer died, June opened up about how they had alienated themselves, and spoke in a sped-up version of English accompanied by synchronized gestures in what started as a game. June expressed in one entry:
“We are both holding each other back… There is a murderous gleam in her eye. Dear Lord, I am scared of her. She is not normal. She is having a nervous breakdown. Someone is driving her insane. It is me.”
June Gibbons has given a few interviews over the years and is reportedly living a quiet life in Wales.
