“The Gullspång Miracle” Argues That Truth isn’t All its Cracked Up to Be
For as long as people have been theorizing about humans and their choices in life, there has been a discussion of nature vs nurture. Is it biology or environment that shapes a person? As with anything, it turns out to be a bit of both. We are the sum of the people, places, and things we experience, but there are also aspects of a person tied to their DNA. At first blush this debate may not seem relevant, but as The Gullspång Miracle unfolds, this question, and many others, becomes the focus of the documentary.
Sisters May and Kari grew up in Norway with another sister, Lita. They were told that she committed suicide, but they weren’t ever able to see her body. The sisters accepted the fact that Lita was gone and that their only answer, despite the odd circumstances surrounding her passing, was the one they were given. That is, until a whale. More specifically, a whale-shaped ride vehicle at an amusement park injures one of the sisters and puts her on bed rest. This leads the duo to purchase a home together in the small Scandinavian town of Gullspång. When they finally find the right home and meet the seller, Olaug, they’re gobsmacked to discover that she’s a dead ringer for their deceased sister. Olaug immerses herself in her new family, but this chance meeting is just the tip of the iceberg.
Courtesy of The Gullspång Miracle
What the family ultimately discovers is that Olaug and Lita are twins. They were born in the 1940s in German-occupied Norway, a time when being a twin was dangerous because the Nazis wanted to experiment on them. The story goes that Olaug and Lita were born, but one, Olaug, was declared dead and taken to another family. This is the narrative the siblings accept for most of the film – until the story takes another turn.
On its surface, The Gullspång Miracle bears a resemblance to Three Identical Strangers, a documentary that followed triplets who discovered each other through a chance encounter. They were separated at birth as part of a “scientific” study about nature vs nurture. To an extent, The Gullspång Miracle examines this phenomenon as well. May and Kari at first remark about how similar Olaug is to Lita. They stand in the same position when they’re nervous and look far too similar for anyone to be able to explain it away. However, the newfound siblings find themselves at a crossroads over religion. Even though they share so much DNA, they cannot seem to reconcile their upbringing. May and Kari feel the meeting is a sign from God, while Olaug shares no such sentiment. Once the initial thrill wears off, what is it that connects them? Is it the shared DNA or the shared belief system? Does the fact that they spent most of their lives not knowing each other make it easier to leave them behind at the first sign of tension? What exactly are the ties that bind?
Courtesy of The Gullspång Miracle
It’s clear from the beginning that director Maria Fredricksson was sold one story while the sisters believed another. It’s rare to hear a director interrupt the subjects as the whole point of a documentary is to document events as they happen. Yet The Gullspång Miracle is interrupted many times by Fredricksson, at times seemingly speaking the audience’s unvoiced confusion and frustration about how these women are acting toward each other. This genre of filmmaking is meant to uncover truths, but that’s not the case here. It seems like the reason no concrete answers come to light is due to direct intervention from one (or more) of the siblings. What’s important, more so than nature or nurture, are the things we tell ourselves to make it through the day. The Gullspång Miracle begins as quirky Scandinavian absurdism, then morphs into something much deeper. Truth doesn’t matter. What shapes us is what we want to believe.
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