Entering its 14th year of showcasing cinematic treasures from Canadian and International filmmakers, I had a wonderful opportunity to see several films this year at the 2018 Windsor International Film Festival.
Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle, is an incredible eye-opening documentary of three brothers who were separated at birth, only to be reunited with each other in the most unusual circumstances.
The story begins as a light-hearted journey with triplet brothers; Eddy Galland, Robert Shafran, and David Kellman. Seeing them meet for the first time is like looking in a mirror, as it is very hard to tell them apart. However, despite their mirrored mannerisms, ability to finish each other's sentences, all having the same favourite colour, and even smoking the same brand of cigarettes, growing up couldn’t have been more different with their adoptive families.
There are moments in the film that make you ache for these brothers and the situations they had to endure. What some refer to as the idea that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” is just a small piece of the puzzle to try and even piece back together.
Behind the dazzling smiles and incredible fame that graced the brothers for many years is where the raw emotions start to spill out.
The movie is well-paced and edited in a way that (without spoiling too much) as darker revelations are disclosed, these hidden secrets inevitably shake the brothers to their very core and change the course of each of their lives forever.
With all the probing thoughts that will definitely flood your mind and create a deep conversation afterwards, the question still remains: are we really a product of nature or nurture?
