Tessa de Loo's novel, Twin Sisters (De Tweeling), has been read by over 3 million people in Germany and the Netherlands. The film, directed by Bob Sombogaart and starring Ellen Vogel and Nadja Uhl, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

It's a tale that spans several decades, showing what happened to twin girls, separated at the age of six after the death of their mother. Lotte, who has consumption, enjoys a comfortable life with well-to-do relatives in Holland. Anna, the stronger one, suffers at the hands of relatives, who are poor farmers in Germany. Set in the late Twenties, the film shows how the experience of the war ensured that they would have a different outlook on life, merely through their conditioning.

Lotte grows up with many Jewish friends and falls in love with a young man who is Jewish. Anna, escaping from the violence of living with slavish farmers, becomes a maid for a rich Countess and mixes with senior Nazi officers. From the beginning, she sees her future being promoted through a leader (Hitler), fighting for the rights of Germans.

The film has a strong emotional core that grabs you from the moment the two girls are separated at their mother's funeral and then a wonderful piece of storytelling takes over, where all the scenes seem to fit seamlessly, as we watch their two lives develop in parallel, involving the past and the present together.

The closest film it resembles is Toto le Heros, where two babies are swapped at birth and they get to lead each other's life - the one from the poorer family living in the well-to-do household and the baby from the well-to-do household living with the poorer family and having a much tougher upbringing. You can see the similarities, but, of course, there are differences, too, since this is about twins in the same family and involves the divide of feelings over anti-Semitism, brought about by varying experiences of the war.

Overall, Twin Sisters works really well right up to its emotional denouement, when you feel for Anna and the lives these women have led. There are some good lines in the script, arguably the best of which is a moment when Anna points out to Lotte that "if she had not been so ill as a child and she had led her (Anna's) life, would she have not made the same choices?"

Take note: this is well worth seeking out if you get the chance.