A brilliant playwright, Lisa no longer writes. She lives in Switzerland with her family but her heart has stayed in Berlin, beating to the rhythm of her brother's heart. The ties between the twins have grown stronger since Sven was diagnosed with an aggressive type of leukaemia. He's a famous theatre actor and Lisa refuses to accept his fate, moving heaven and earth to get him back on stage. She gives her all for her soul mate, neglecting everything else, even risking her marriage. Her relationship with her husband starts to fall apart, but Lisa only has eyes for her brother, her mirror, who connects her back with her deepest aspirations and rekindles her desire to create, to feel alive ...

Direction: Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond

Script: Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond

Production: Ruth Waldburger

Cinematography: Filip Zumbrunn

Editing: Myriam Rachmuth

Production Design: Marie-Claude Lang

Costume Design: Anna Van Bree

Make-Up: Marc Hollenstein

Sound: Patrick Storck, David Hilgers

Original Score: Christian Garcia

Cast: Nina Hoss, Lars Eidinger, Marthe Keller, Jens Albinus, Thomas Ostermeier

Original Title: SCHWESTERLEIN

Original Language: German

Film Production Country: Switzerland

Website: https://vegafilm.com/en/title/schwesterlein-my-little-sister-petite-soeur-2020/

Statement of the Director/s
MY LITTLE SISTER has a special meaning for us. This film brings together three elements that are central to our lives. First, the city of Berlin to which we've had a strong attachment for over fifteen years. Second, the theatre, as we are both actresses. And above all, a unique friendship that goes back to our childhood. Stéphanie and Véronique were first and foremost two teenagers who shared the same love of theatre and decided to make a career out of it. Together we created a multitude of shows and together we started making films.
To write MY LITTLE SISTER, we drew inspiration from our own atypical relationship, wherein we sometimes feel more alive when we are creating than in everyday life, like the twins in our movie, always hooked up to their shared imaginary world when they are together. We made them part of a theatre family because we are fascinated by the passion that drives those known in Germany as "Theatermenschen". In this community, an actor who doesn't perform doesn't exist. He is erased from memory. Whilst on stage he glows, borne by the presence of the audience. Through our characters' love of the theatre, our movie recounts in its own way the necessity of dreams as a way of escaping reality.
MY LITTLE SISTER is also the story of Lisa's inner journey back to her creativity through the illness of her brother, her alter ego. By reconnecting with writing to beat back the shadows, she brings herself out of the darkness. Through the unbreakable bonds that link these two beings, our film celebrates the fragility and power of life, the strength of transmission, and relates that the end of one life can also be the start of another.

Biography of the Director/s
Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond work together as a “twin-engine“. Both trained as actresses, they have performed in numerous theatre productions and have also appeared as a stage duo. Their debut feature THE LITTLE BEDROOM (2010) premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival. It won several awards, including Best Fiction Film & Best Screenplay at the Swiss Film Award, and was the Swiss submission for the US Academy Awards. In 2014, Chuat and Reymond wrote and directed the series OPEN BOOK, broadcast on Swiss and French television. In 2018, their documentary feature LADIES premiered at Visions du Réel International Film Festival and was a Swiss box-office hit.
MY LITTLE SISTER is their second fiction film which has been selected at Berlin International Film Festival.

Filmography of the Director/s
2020 MY LITTLE SISTER
2018 LADIES, doc.
2014 OPEN BOOK, tv series
2010 THE LITTLE BEDROOM

Production Company:
Vega Film AG
Ruth Waldburger
Helenastrasse 3
Zürich, 8034, Switzerland
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +41 44 384 80 90
Website: https://vegafilm.com/

World Sales:
BETA CINEMA
Dirk Schürhoff
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d
Oberhaching, 82041, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +49 89 67 34 69 828
Website: https://www.betacinema.com/

Press:
BETA CINEMA
Dorothee Stoewahse
Gruenwalder Weg 28 d
Oberhaching, 82041, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +49 89 67 34 69 15
Website: https://www.betacinema.com/