Zara Meerza: I think the connection really comes from the dual belonging and otherness of twins. The film opens by framing Mary-Kate and Ashley as your almost-guides to Western adolescence.Īs a first generation Indian-British girl, you didn’t have any family to help you predict what growing up would be like. Given Mary-Kate and Ashley are both American and white, why do you think you were still able to connect so deeply? Do you think that would still be the case for young girls today where there is more of an emphasis on representation on television? Passport to Paris is my current favourite. I also have to acknowledge that despite these elements I loved, it's definitely among their more problematic films – the representation of the local population is quite disturbing to revisit as an adult, and the market chase scene particularly. Zara Meerza: As a teen it was Holiday in the Sun – the Weezer opening track, a young Megan Fox as Breanna Wallis, the blatant advertising for the Atlantis resort that I then begged my parents to take me to. What was your favourite Mary-Kate & Ashley film or show? We started discussing why that might be and none of us could put our finger on it – so the exploration began.

Being a fairly international festival I was really intrigued to discover how many people from around the world had a deep affinity for them and their films, even though they weren’t readily accessible.

I was at a film festival in Toronto and talking to some friends about the Olsens. Zara Meerza: The question behind the film came to me about five years ago. Hey Zara! When did you get the idea to make a film focused on the Olsens, and when did you begin actually working on The Twins ? Now in her 30s, Meerza is still obsessed with the Olsens, enamoured by their inextricable bond and the palpable solidarity that has extended into their private adult lives. While she and her family looked nothing like the twins, she was able to see herself in their films and felt embraced by the community of girls their products and brand cultivated. As a first generation British-Indian girl, she looked to Mary-Kate and Ashley’s adolescent exploits to guide her when her family had no point of reference for growing up in the West. In The Twins, Meerza fuses a deeply personal story with an exploration of society’s longtime fascination with twins. They settled into their archetypes and eventually eclipsed the spotlight all together, sans the occasional cigarette break paparazzi shot. We were left to wonder: were the twins’ duelling identities developed for their characters, or did they mirror their actual personalities? As the Olsens grew up, it became harder to distinguish. Throughout their dozens of films, television shows, and public appearances, the Olsens contrasted the frustrations women feel when shoved into stereotypical categories with the joy of living life with a built-in best friend who knows exactly what they’re going through.

Mary kate and ashley movies