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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 30 June 2018

Documentary tells dark tale of triplets separated at birth

By JAKE COYLE which opens in theaters Shafran. “They can blame als who participated in the in secrecy.” But he has little
Associated Press Friday, is about a much- people who are no longer film, and we are apprecia- hope that they can provide
NEW YORK (AP) — The first documented case that alive, but it’s an institution, tive that this film has cre- anything like catharsis for
time that brothers David had largely receded from a continuing institution. The ated an opportunity for a him and his brother. Their
Kellman, Bobby Shafran public memory. After the entire study should just be public discourse about the story has previously been
and Eddy Galland were in told in a 1995 New Yorker
the public eye, it was joy- piece on twins by Law-
ous. The then 19-year-old rence Wright, who turned it
identical triplets, separated into a book. But aside from
at birth, had just learned another documentary last
about the others’ exis- year, “The Twinning Reac-
tence. tion,” the brothers had re-
Despite growing up sepa- treated from talking pub-
rately, the three big-smiling, licly, they said.
curly-haired kids smoked “We didn’t do anything
the same cigarettes and since the lights went out.
finished each other’s sen- We didn’t do anything
tences. They appeared since Eddy passed away,”
on shows like Phil Dona- said Shafran.
hue, became early ‘80s But “Three Identical Strang-
tabloid regulars and even ers” has been an unexpect-
made a cameo alongside edly rewarding process for
Madonna in 1985’s “Des- the brothers. Shafran recalls
perately Seeking Susan.” being moved watching the
They opened a restaurant gasping faces of a Sun-
in New York’s Soho called dance audience following
Triplets Roumanian Steak their bizarre journey. The
House. This undated photo provided by film studio NEON shows Eddy Galland, David Kellman and Bobby brothers weren’t especially
“We were sort of falling in Shafran, who learned at age 19 that they had been separated at birth. close at the time of filming,
love,” Kellman recalls in the Associated Press but the movie helped re-
new documentary “Three pair their relationship.
Identical Strangers.” triplets found each other open for starters.” study.” “You don’t get together
Their second go-around in 1980 (Shafran, remark- The files from the study, Several other sets of twins with siblings as much as
has been more complicat- ably, arrived at an upstate stored at Yale University, will involved in the study have you’d like. That’s just life,”
ed. Galland killed himself New York community col- not be unsealed until 2066. also found themselves, said Kellman, who works in
in 1995. And the disturbing lege only to find everyone Some heavily redacted re- including Elyse Schein insurance and lives in New
reasons for their separation already knew him, believ- search was shared by the and Paula Bernstein, who Jersey. Kellman, who has
only emerged after that ini- ing him to be the already- Jewish Board with Kellman penned a 2007 memoir, children similar in age to
tial glow of reunion. “Three enrolled Galland), another and Shafran but only in and Doug Rausch and Shafran’s, said he’s current-
Identical Strangers,” di- discovery followed. the final days of post-pro- Howard Burack, who ap- ly going through a divorce.
rected by British filmmaker The triplets, born in 1961, duction on “Three Identi- peared on “20/20” in And they’re resolutely im-
Tim Wardle, is the stranger- were placed with three cal Strangers” after months March. pressed by both Wardle’s
than-fiction tale behind families — one upper class, of effort by the filmmakers “Most of the people I’ve film and his sensitivity
their story, one of the more one middle, one working — and family. “It was pulling spoken to involved in the throughout the filmmaking
disquieting cases of sepa- by the now-defunct Louise teeth to get every page,” study just want to know: process. They greatly prefer
ration at birth. Wise Agency as part of a said Kellman. Was anything learned?” their experience as docu-
Since its Sundance Film Fes- study about nature vs. nur- “They wouldn’t talk with us said Wardle. “Me and my mentary subjects to “lab
tival debut, the film — a re- ture by the Child Develop- during the film,” said War- producer would sometimes rats.” But ask them for their
al-life roller-coaster ride into ment Center. The center dle. “They’d only engage leave an interview going, own conclusions about
a dark and twisted history would later merge with the with us via a crisis manage- ‘Oh my goodness! This story what their story means in
— has astonished and infu- Jewish Board of Family and ment PR firm which they is incredible! I can’t believe terms of nature vs. nurture,
riated moviegoers in equal Children’s Services, a large, had hired. They would only it! And then you’d think lat- and they’re at a loss.
measures. It has renewed 140-year-old New York non- engage with the brothers er: Actually, this was these “It’s very difficult for me
pressure on a prominent profit. via a medical malpractice guys’ lives. We’d have to to watch this movie in an
child development center The study — which encom- attorney. I would say the remind ourselves that this objective fashion,” says
to make the study transpar- passed an unknown num- Jewish Board was extreme- wasn’t just a great story. Kellman. “In order to get
ent. And it has returned the ber of twins — was con- ly unhelpful.” This was something these into the nuances between
remaining brothers to the ducted through the 1960s A spokesperson for the guys lived through.” the brothers as individu-
spotlight under far less fes- and ‘70s by Dr. Peter Neu- Jewish Board declined to Shafran, a Brooklyn attor- als, you’d have to make
tive circumstances. bauer, a prominent, Austri- specifically address those ney who has two children a much longer movie, a
“When we went through an-born psychologist who claims or answer questions with his wife of 30 years, crit- movie that no one would
the limelight before it was died in 2008. Without the regarding the study’s re- icizes the Jewish Board for sit through. Because it’s our
celebratory. It was all fun,” knowledge of the children lease. It responded with a “shrouding this whole thing lives.”q
Kellman, now 57, said in an or their parents, research- statement to The Associ-
interview. “Is this somewhat ers studied the children’s ated Press.
enjoyable? Yeah, but it development right until the “We do not endorse the
brings up a lot of pain too. triplets showed up on TV. Neubauer study, and we
“Seeing it in the theater re- “I don’t know what these deeply regret that it took
ally got me,” he added. “I people are going to do, if place,” said the statement.
cried like a baby.” anything. I just know what “We recognize the great linda.reijnders@cspnv.com
“Three Identical Strangers,” they did was wrong,” said courage of the individu-