Three Identical Strangers (2018) Review
Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers examines the shocking story of how three unsuspecting individuals–carrying the same physical features and interests– stumbled upon one another to learn they are triplets.
Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, adopted and raised in different households, are 19 when they discovered that they are long-lost siblings. Amused by this, the broadsheet and television /radio media picked up their story and received widespread publicity for years.
Their eventual popularity enabled them to land bit roles in a film, guesting in talk shows, and open their restaurant, fittingly called Triplets Roumanian Steakhouse, which they operated together.
Three Identical Strangers investigates the crazy turn of events that the siblings had to go through after learning each other’s existence and their even crazier origin story. For those coming in blindly, this documentary sets up a reveal that might’ve been one of the strangest and horrifying twists ever captured.
The siblings, as it turns out, are former subjects of a scientific study wherein the concept of “nature versus nurture” is looked upon. They are separated as infants and observed their behaviors in different upbringings. Kellman described the experiment’s similarity with testing lab rats in multiple tests and admitted that the three of them are robbed of a chance of being together growing up.
Three Identical Strangers is a thoughtfully made documentary, filled with real-life footage, re-enacted scenes, and present-day interviews that each provided multiple perspectives of this unsettling tale. It is paced like a well-plotted thriller, concluding with a big bang that offers more possibilities than a solution to its conflict.
The only difference is that Three Identical Strangers is genuinely scary, and it could be stranger than what a fictional narrative can provide. It never tries to glamorize nor overemphasize the bizarreness of the situation. It simply knocks your head with the reality that there is more to this scientific study than its titular triplets—just waiting to be discovered.
