Sister My Sister

The sisters Christine and Lea work as maids in a wealthy house in provincial France. Madame Danzard runs the household and her daughter with iron discipline; an undusted corner or a missing glove is noticed at once. The two sisters are alone in the small room upstairs and the bond between them gradually turns into something else. The house begins to sense it. Nancy Meckler's film is based on the Papin sisters case, which actually happened in Le Mans in 1933. Wendy Kesselman adapted it from her own play My Sister in This House; the narrative runs independently of Genet's The Maids and builds the event as a closed system caught between class and sexuality. The film is set almost entirely indoors. Joely Richardson plays Christine, Jodhi May plays Lea, and Julie Walters plays Madame Danzard. The cast is entirely women, as is most of the crew. Who it's for: Viewers who like true-crime adaptations, chamber thrillers, and class-based psychological drama. Who it's not for: The violence at the end is extreme and the film offers no explanation. The pace is also deliberately slow.