Three Identical Strangers (2018)

Directed by: Tim Wardle | 96 minutes | documentary | Starring: Robert Shafran, David Kellman, Michael Domnitz, Howard Schneider, Ellen Cervone, Alan Luchs, Hedy Page, Alice Shafran, Elliott Galland, Eddy Galland, Richard Kellman, Justine Wise Polier, Mort Shafran, Ilene Shafran, Janet Kellman, Brenda Galland Lawrence Wright, Natasha Josefowitz, Elyse Schein, Peter Neubauer, Lawrence Perlman

While that goes for almost every movie, the advice for ‘Three Identical Strangers’ is a little more urgent: go see this without knowing too much beforehand. Stop reading (especially after that) and take your best friend, beloved family member or neighbor to this documentary.

Okay. Seen a movie? For the people who can’t resist and continue reading, fear not: this review is spoiler-free as much as possible. The title ‘Three Identical Strangers’ pretty much gives away what the documentary is about and people who are about the age range of the main characters or older may still remember the news reports in the early eighties.

In 1980, 19-year-old Robert Shafran attends Sullivan County Community College for his first day of school. After parking his car, he walks onto campus and although he has never been there, everyone seems to recognize him. “Hey, man, nice to have you back!” and “How was your summer vacation?” he hears around him and even girls come up to him and kiss him. Robert doesn’t understand it at all, until he meets someone who realizes how the fork is in the handle. The boy asks for his date of birth, if he has been adopted and then confidently claims that Robert has a twin brother. The two of the boys set out for this Eddy Galland.

The boys don’t need proof when they see each other. It is immediately clear: they are twin brothers. The newspapers get wind of this special story: twin brothers reunited after nineteen years and then things get even crazier. A third boy, David Kellman, recognizes himself in the newspaper and contacts Eddy’s mother. It turns out not to be adopted twins, but triplets. You can imagine how the media circus went on working overtime. The three boys enjoyed all the attention, their TV appearances, they even got a cameo in Madonna’s ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’…

But ‘Three Identical Strangers’ has a lot more to tell than just the incredible story of Robert, Eddy and David. Director Tim Wardle uses almost no other tricks than a rock-solid structure to keep the viewer captivated and shocking. Apart from some unnecessary staged fragments in the first few minutes of the film, which irritate a bit (as if the viewer himself cannot form a picture of the told story), the film consists of a lot of talking heads and archive material, but that absolutely grabs you. the throat. Wardle mainly proves himself to be a good investigative journalist (or at least to count such a person in his crew), because during the film things come to light that he could not have even imagined in the pitch. ‘Three Identical Strangers’ tells a deeply human story and contrasts it with the development of our ethical and moral compass in recent decades. Can not be missed.