Indivisible (Edoardo De Angelis 2016) | Italy

by Finso Gyaltsen, viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Feb. 2017)

.“Indivisible” is an Italian film directed by Edoardo De Angelis, and stars Angela and Marianna Fontana as 18-year-old siamese twin sisters blessed with beautiful voices. In this film, these conjoined twins develop a desire for different things out life instead of the their regular routine of singing at weddings, communions, and baptisms, to support their family with their earnings. Their father is against this and wants to keep things as they are, and from here comes the core of the struggle in this movie, the desire for change and being able to do things as normal people do, or continue living life as singing Siamese twins.

“Indivisible” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival this past Sunday. It had its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12th. The movie opens with these twins singing at different events around their hometown in Caserta, Italy The locals seem to take a liking to these twins perceiving them as special and blessed due to their physical nature. The twins themselves have different personalities, and both love each other as any siamese siblings would, but when they encounter a doctor who informs them that they can be separated, Daisy and Viola face an emotional decision about whether to lead “separate” normal lives or stay together which one of the twins opposes while the other strives for it. Meanwhile, their seedy businessman father is furious at the possibility of their separation because he wouldn’t be able to cash in on his daughter’s physical traits which add a shine to their singing. This leads to conflict between the twins themselves and with their father.

The film is carried by some beautiful soundtracks, especially  the ” Tutt’egual Song ” by Enzo Avitabile and Eliades Ochoa, which really carries the emotions you think the girls are portrayed to be going trough as they navigate their way through this unique life they have carved for themselves. Indivisible is a good watch and was definitely one of the better films at the Santa Barbara festival this year and worth a watch.