Is The Silent Twins a true story? Who were identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons - is movie on Netflix

The Silent Twins is a historical drama film by Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska, based on the 1986 biography written by Marjorie Wallace. The novel was previously adapted into a BBC TV movie of the same name.

The 2022 film features Black Panther star Letitia Wright as June Gibbons and Invasion actress Tamara Lawrance as her twin sister Jennifer. Michael Smiley, who is known for his roles in Bad Sisters, Free Fire, and The Lobster, stars as Tim Thomas.

What is The Silent Twins about?

The Silent Twins follows the story of two identical twin sisters, June and Jennifer Gibbons. Their parents, part of the Windrush generation, moved to the UK in the early 1960s and raised the twins in Wales.

As the twins feel isolated from the majority white community where they live, the paid cease communication with the outside world, choosing only to speak to each other. The pair are eventually sentenced to be detained at Broadmoor Hospital where they must choose whether to stick together and face death, or separate from each other and survive. The film is based on the true story of the real-life twins.

Who were June and Jennifer Gibbons?

The twins were born in April 1963 and soon became known as the silent twins because they refused to communicate with anyone else. Other than their three other siblings, they were the only Black children in their community and found themselves excluded by their white peers.

Their experience at school was traumatic and the pair began to cut themselves off from the rest of society, communicating with each other in the Bajan Creole language. Eventually the only people they spoke to were each other and their younger sister, Rose.

The pair began writing stories which were usually set in the US and featured young men and women with strange and sometimes criminal behaviours. So far only one of their novels, The Pepsi-Cola Addict, written by June, has been published. It follows a high school student who is seduced by his teacher and is then sent to a reformatory school where a gay guard attempts to seduce him.

As teenagers, the twins became involved in petty crime, including vandalism, theft and arson, and were eventually detained in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period of time. The pair spent 11 years at Broadmoor where they were heavily medicated.

In 1993 the sisters were transferred to Caswell Clinic in Wales, but on arrival at the clinic Jennifer was unconscious - she was taken to hospital where she died of sudden heart inflammation.

The sisters had previously agreed that if one of them died the other should reintegrate with the outside world and begin to communicate again. June fulfilled this promise and gave several media interviews after her twin’s death. June now lives an ordinary life, residing in the UK close to her family, and is able to communicate normally.

How can you watch The Silent Twins?

The Silent Twins is a 2022 film - it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and was released in UK cinemas on Friday 9 December. The film is not currently available on Netflix or any other streaming platforms in the UK and is only currently available in cinemas. Watch this space for updates on when The Silent Twins will be streaming in the UK.