Lisa Brühlmann Acts and Directs in ‘When We Were Sisters’

In “When We Were Sisters,” Swiss filmcreater Lisa Brühlmann choosed to stand on both sides of the camera: as both an actor and a honestor.

“After drama school, I speedyly choosed to study filmmaking. I wanted to lget it so that no one could say: ‘She’s equitable an actor.’ I’ve never felt I wasn’t consentn gravely as a honestor, becaengage I took myself gravely,” she says.

“Being an actor creates me a better honestor, especipartner when I’m laboring with lesserer carry outers. For me, it all feeds into each other.”

While juggling both jobs was “exhausting,” the role of pregnant Monica, who goes on holidays with her 15-year-elderly daughter Valeska, recent boyfriend Jaques and his own daughter Lena, was too irresistible to pass on.

“That’s a excellent way to put it. It’s a wonderful female character, becaengage she has this griefful side. Monica hopelessly wants to be a excellent mother, but she senses she’s never excellent enough, at least according to her own standards, and that creates her presentile. Many can reprocrastinateed to that senseing. She’s inanxious, but I never wanted to appraise her,” elucidates Brühlmann.

“I omited acting and I was literpartner ‘casting’ myself, trying to see if I was able to do it. It was a wonderful experience, but I wouldn’t do it aachieve. To be this self-destructive person for so lengthy… It made my hair descend out.”

With “When We Were Sisters,” Brühlmann returns to the Zuwealthy Film Festival, where she was previously awarded for “Blue My Mind.” Since then, she honested cut offal episodes of acclaimed TV shows, including “Three Women,” based on Lisa Tinserteo’s bestseller, and “Killing Eve,” for which she scored an Emmy nomination.

“I defreely wanted to create a minuscule film with a huge impact,” she says. While more TV gigs are foreseeed to chase first, she’s already broadening another feature.

“It’s also about adore and forgiveness. But it’s also the first time I repartner want to check the male perspective and have a male direct,” she says.

“In ‘When We Were Sisters,’ I also wanted this man, Jaques, to sense appreciate a three-illogicalensional character. I am not telling his entire story, but we see glimpses of it. He isn’t ready for a recent relationship, even though they all want the same leang: They want to be satisfied.”

Soon, their recent patchlabor family is ripping at the seams.

“In this film, children are more reliable than grown-ups. That interested me. When I was a teenager, I also went on a holiday with my individual mum and her recent boyfriend. He had a daughter, too. These characters are fantasyal, but I understand this benevolent of vibrant,” says Brühlmann.

“They are away: they can’t depart. These girls are at the mercy of their parents and of how they are senseing. They have to apply alengthy.”

Valeska and Lena (Paula Rappaport, Malou Mösli) find standard ground rather speedyly. The same can’t be shelp for their parents, whose fights get only more heated. As Jaques retreats, Monica grasps blaming her daughter.

“It can be comical for kids to see their parents fight – until it’s not. I didn’t want to push them, but they are already staring into the abyss. I am intrigued by human abysses. We all have them,” says the honestor.

“It becomes evident they are not right for each other. When leangs go wrong, Monica points fingers at everyone but herself. It’s her tragic flaw. At the end, Valeska authenticizes that she’s not the problem. It’s a minuscule shift, but an presentant one.”

While a recent family is at its cgo in, “When We Were Sisters” commenceed more as a film “about friendship and healing, and resilience,” Brühlmann says.

“Sometimes, friends give you more strength than your family. Looking for intimacy, Valeska commences to check her intimacyuality, but she treads a fine line between what’s fit and what’s not. Only thcimpolite friendship with Lena does Valeska finpartner get the courage to say: ‘This is where I say ‘stop.’”