The Silent Twins (2022) is an international biographical co-production that made its Netflix Debut on 16th June, 2025. Written by Andrea Seigel, and Directed by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, it has a runtime of 1 hour and 53 minutes.
The film follows the true-life story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, a pair of twin sisters who have an incredibly strange relationship with each other, including (but not limited to) not communicating with anyone but each other in any way.
Premise (Spoilers Included!)
The film starts off with a lively radio skit by the young twin sisters, vibrant and imaginative. But then it ends abruptly and we’re back in reality where someone is knocking on the door. It is their mother, informing them that dinner is ready. They are silent in response, even after she leaves. It is then revealed that they were taking part in a self-mutilation endurance game.
When they come down for dinner, we are introduced to their family; their parents, Gloria and Aubrey, their older siblings, Greta and David, and their baby sister, Rosie. Greta expresses extreme disdain for the twins’ odd behaviour and refusal to communicate, their father seems exhausted and their mother remains steadfast and nurturing.
As the only Black children in their school, they experience relentless bullying and racism. This hostility from the outside world pushes them further inward, leading to further isolation from the surrounding kids.
While giving them their vaccination shots, a doctor becomes alarmed by their ultimate lack of reaction to pain and notifies the school, who in turn reports to their parents. After extensive discussion, the twins are sent to a private special needs school. Their teacher makes numerous efforts to get them to communicate, but they remain adamant. It becomes noticeable that Jennifer is the “dominant” twin; June more often than not following her lead. Realising this as well, the school separates them, sending June to their sister academy. However, they both become catatonic, refusing to eat, sleep or even move until they are reunited.
"Follow me, or else you die.."
10 years later, the twins are teenagers, and nothing has changed. They refuse to speak to anyone, but their creativity has soared, both of them writing multiple stories, poems, and extensive diaries with themes about isolation, loneliness, and other dark themes.
During Christmas, they plan to finally break out of their shell and talk to the family, starting by wishing them a merry Christmas, but they are caught off guard when their sister Greta reaches out to them. Panicked, they revert back to their silent state. Frustrated after years of unsuccessful trial, Greta lashes out at them and storms out of the house with her husband, leading to another depressing Christmas.
After this, we learn that the twins want to be writers. They sign up for a writing school and send numerous projects to different outlets, but face multiple rejections. They deduce that their lack of normality and social experiences cause their writing to lack substance, so they set out to experience “love”, eventually meeting a pair of American boys and crushing on them.
The boys, Wayne and George, realising the twins’ lack of experience, introduce them to drugs and sex. This has varying effects on the girls; June finds a spark of inspiration for a new story while Jennifer mistakes her addiction to the drugs and Wayne’s attention for love. June’s story becomes a very successful novel. This begins to drive a small wedge between them until one night, after an insensitive prank by Wayne, it becomes clear that he does not value or care for Jennifer. The following day, the girls fight and eventually make up, with June admitting that she hates the boys and how Wayne treats Jennifer.
As their frustration and resentment grow, the girls begin acting out—vandalizing property, shoplifting, and eventually committing arson, setting fire to buildings including a tractor showroom and a technical college. This leads to their arrest and instead of being sent to a juvenile facility or standard prison, they are committed to Broadmoor Hospital—a high-security psychiatric institution typically reserved for the most dangerous offenders. At only 19, they receive an indefinite detention order, despite psychiatric assessments indicating they pose no threat to others.
The rest of the film spans their 11 year stay at the institution, highlighting their various mental struggles with isolation and co-dependency on each other and eventually, the bittersweet end, with Jennifer’s tragic death and June’s freedom.
Cast and Performances
- Letitia Wright as June Gibbons
- Leah Mondesir-Simmonds as young June Gibbons
- Tamara Lawrance as Jennifer Gibbons
- Eva-Arianna Baxter as young Jennifer Gibbons
- Nadine Marshall as Gloria Gibbons
- Treva Etienne as Aubrey Gibbons
- Jodhi May as Marjorie Wallace
- Jack Bandeira as Wayne Kennedy
It goes without saying that Letitia Wright is always going to be phenomenal (put some respect on Shuri), but I must give accolades to girls who played the younger versions of the twins. They truly capture the eeriness of their odd behaviour, especially their unnatural co-dependency despite their volatile relationship. The same goes for Wright and Lawrence. Their on-screen chemistry as twins (despite not being identical) and their portrayal of their toxicity was incredibly impressive.
Thoughts and Opinions on The Silent Twins
I have to admit, I had to watch this movie multiple times to truly grasp all of it. And that doesn’t speak negatively of the film, it’s actually the contrary. The film and the story it tells are so complex that I constantly had to remind myself that this was a real story, talking about real life people, somewhere in this world, the events of this movie actually took place in real time (don’t worry, I did my research and it’s rather surprising how accurate the film is). And the movie, despite its eccentric elements, does a unique and impressive job of reminding the viewer about that.
There is no romanticization or sensationalization of the events. Every single moment of this film is unsettling and sometimes even disturbing, but in a good way. In the way that it shocks you out of any urge to fictionalise the gut-churning reality of this story (and those urges do come, believe me).
The end credits explain that the autopsy of the real Jennifer had no real conclusion and that her cause of death remains unknown, which makes the circumstances surrounding it even more odd and unsettling, especially its effect on June.
A very unique trait about this film is the way it creatively brings the twins’ inner world to life with surreal stop-motion animation, visualizing stories of parrots in perilous relationships, doomed lovers, and misunderstood outsiders—all metaphors for their own experiences, and also the poetic voice over narrations that get darker as the film progresses.
The end credits then explain that the short stories, voice over poems, and even some of the movie soundtrack were all taken from the many writings of the real life twins. It really speaks to just how impressive and creative their imaginations were from such a young age. And in an odd but sad way, I noticed that the cinematography of their short stories and skits are bright and colourful, in heavy contrast to the grey-blue muted tones of reality.
Final Thoughts on The Silent Twins
I could go on and on and on about the various noticeable traits of this film (and my new hyperfixation on the real twins and their story). The story is not framed as a simple tragedy, but as a complicated journey through silence, creativity, repression, and the cost of deep emotional entanglement.
I rate The Silent Twins: 4 out of 5
