Two Sisters - One Life

A review of  Toni and Rosi, film preview at BAFTA

Toni and Rosi is the latest documentary by director Will Wyatt, former controller of BBC One. It depicts the intense relationship between two Viennese sisters, Toni and Rosi, a piano duo who survived World War Two, family breakdown and life threatening-illness to achieve success on the classical music circuit.

The charm of the film lies with the sister’s themselves. In their eighties, they are characterful, exuberant and often make the audience laugh aloud. Wyatt carefully cuts footage of the sisters shot over the last ten years with archive footage of the events they describe. This skillful juxtaposition of two types of film add to its emotional intensity.

As Jews in 1930s Vienna, under the strict and vicious control of the Nazis, the girls explain how they were in fear for their lives; a fear brought vividly into focus with footage of Viennese citizens enthusiastically welcoming the invading German Army. ‘We could hear them through the window’ the sisters add.    
                                        Their story after the end of the war is carefully drawn out, painted with the acute awareness of a practiced director. Intimate family anecdotes are interwoven seamlessly with the historical events which formed a back drop to them.

The film is subtle and nuanced, and all the better for it, but viewers must pay attention to feel its full emotional force. At the end we learn of Toni’s death. The final shot lingers on Rosi’s solitary figure as she plays the piano, heartbreakingly alone after so many years of companionship.

I was lucky enough to attend the preview at BAFTA and speak to the editor, Jamie Hay, about his approach to this unusual subject.

Watch it at 11.00pm, BBC4, Sunday 29th January.