When We Were Sisters
1996: Fifteen-year-old Valeska is going on vacation with her mother Monica. Jacques, her mother's new boyfriend, and his daughter Lena, who Valeska doesn't get along with at first, are joining them. Slowly, however, a friendship develops between the two girls. While they find a sister in each other, the adults' relationship spirals out of control. Valeska must emancipate herself from her mother and, in doing so, give up her dream of an intact family.
Cast
- VALESKA
- Paula Rappaport
- LENA
- Malou Mösli
- MONICA
- Lisa Brühlmann
- JACQUES
- Carlos Leal
When We Were Sisters
Lisa Brühlmann
- Fiction
- Production Country / Year
- Switzerland, Greece 2024
- Language
- gsw., engl., el. OF m. dt. UT
- Format
- DCP, Color, 101min
1.66:1, Discrete 5.1
Director & Crew
Lisa Brühlmann
Born in 1981 in Zurich/Switzerland. Studied Acting in Berlin and Film, Directing and Screenwriting at the Zurich University of the Arts. Master of Arts in Feature Film Directing at the Zurich UniversityActive as a director.
Filmography
| 2017 | Blue my mind | Spielfilm | |
| 2018 | Killing eve | TV-Serie | |
| 2019 | Servant | TV-Serie | |
| 2021 | The girl before | Mini-Serie | |
| 2024 | When we were sisters | Spielfilm | 2025 |
“The longing for an intact family is something profoundly human. We are social creatures. Fortunately, what we call ‘family’ can reach far beyond blood ties. In WHEN WE WERE SISTERS, all the characters try to soothe their yearning for family. Some succeed, others do not. I wanted to show that friendship can be stronger than family in the narrower sense. […] The film is inspired by personal experiences and by relationship constellations familiar to me. But I usually combine several real people I know or have known into a single character and let them inspire me. Beyond that, the story is pure fiction – the plot and the characters are entirely invented.”
- Writer
- Lisa Brühlmann
- Director of Photography
- Michael Saxer
- Editor
- Kaya Inan
- Production Designer
- Peter Scherz
- Costume Designer
- Sara Giancane
- Casting Director
- Corinna Glaus
- Sofia Dimopoulou
- Sound
- Marco Teufen
- Sound Designer
- Manu Gerber
- Music Composer
- Balz Bachmann
- Dino Brandão
- Producer
- Reto Schaerli
- Lukas Hobi
- Dimitris Logiadis
- Nicholas Alavanos