POTO AND CABENGO

Poto and Cabengo, the first solo film by Godards former collaborator Jean-Pierre Gorin, is an experimental documentary based around the case of two young San Diego twins, Grace and Virginia Kennedy, who had apparently invented a private language. The promise of a spontaneous language spoken only by identical twins generated intense interest, but, as Gorins film patiently suggests, the reality was a less headline-friendly story of working-class American life. As Gorin tries to unpick the secret of the girls speech, Poto and Cabengo combines elements of a scientific detective story with a a sensitive portrait of the twins and their family: the American dream dissolving into a study of suburban décor and arrested innocence.