Inseparable Sisters
BBC1
★★★☆☆
There is much cruelty and horror in the world right now but, without wanting to sound too Pollyanna about it, Inseparable Sisters felt like a small, restitutive shot of kindness. The love and care bestowed on the conjoined twins Marieme and Ndeye Ndiaye by their father, their teachers, their doctors and their very sweet classmates in Cardiff was a misery antidote. It showed ordinary people being, well, lovely.
Their father, Ibrahima, brought the girls to the UK from Senegal in 2017 when they were seven months old after Great Ormond Street Hospital agreed to treat them (it was decided not to separate them because Marieme wouldn’t survive on her own). Now aged seven, they have set up home in Cardiff and Ibrahima talked of how the twins, who have separate brains, hearts, spines and lungs but share a liver, bladder, pelvis and three kidneys, have completely different personalities, which you could see quite clearly.
What stood out was how cheerful they are, smiling through the documentary and picking unicorn-themed dresses and coats that had to be specially made by another kind person, a seamstress in Cardiff.
Online I have seen critical, perhaps predictable, comments about how the “International Health Service” should not be treating foreign nationals while UK citizens languish on waiting lists etc. But no one in this documentary looked anything other than delighted that the twins were here. The way the local community rallied round them suggested they were seen as a blessing.
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Ibrahima was certainly grateful for the support he gets in the UK. He said he felt so lucky: “I couldn’t find better.” Where the film fell slightly short was in unanswered questions. It was mentioned that the girls’ mother had stayed in Senegal to look after their other children, but I wanted to know more. How did it work? Did she ever see Marieme and Ndeye? Do they speak on FaceTime? This was not addressed. Perhaps Ibrahima had requested it be that way.
What was clear was that this man, a former managing director in Senegal, had given up his job, his home and his married life to devote himself to the twins — and felt very fortunate to have done so. He was a one-man advert for the wisdom of living in the present. He does not know what the future holds, what new complications his children may face, but as he said: “I live for now … celebrate life.”
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