My Little Sister (2020)

The strained but loving relationship between twin siblings Lisa (Nina Hoss) and Sven (Lars Eidinger) is explored in the Swiss flick Schwesterlein, or My Little Sister (2020). The siblings have a deep and abiding love of the theatre, which both of them pursued as a career, with Sven becoming an acclaimed actor while Lisa was an accomplished playwright. However, Lisa gave up writing several years ago, leaving Berlin and her brother behind to go live in Switzerland with her husband Martin (Jens Albinus) and start a family. Now, after nearly a decade away from her brother, Lisa receives a phone call from Sven informing her that he has been diagnosed with leukemia, and she makes the difficult decision to leave her family and travel to Berlin to be her brother's caretaker during his treatment. Naturally, this opens old wounds and as much as these siblings love one another, they have a lot of issues that need to get out into the open so Sven doesn't die feeling bitterness towards his twin sister. Co-writers and directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond have given us a complicated portrait of two people who love each other unconditionally, but also know better than anyone else in the world how to hurt the other. The film's title itself is a strong indication of this as Lisa is literal minutes younger than Sven, yet he doggedly refers to her as his little sister. Nina Hoss comes close to going nude a few times in the flick, yet never ends up doffing her duds. Still, a shot of her nude behind frosted glass in the shower and a scene where she sports a perky pair of pokies in bed with her husband are sure to get you where you need to go!