Chekhov was on to something when he conceived the ‘ Three Sisters’. Female sibling relationships are endlessly fascinating. Just think of Woody Allen’s ‘Interiors’ or ‘Hannah and Her Sisters’. One of the highlights of this year’s Audi Festival of German Films is MY SISTERS (Meine Schwestern).

Middle sister Linda was born with a congenital heart defect that should have killed her in infancy but has managed to live thirty years.

Now she faces major surgery and wants to spend some quality time with her siblings before she goes under the knife -a farewell tour to life.

Eine kleine Clara is the first to come on board. She adores her older sister, dotes on her as if she were the youngest, a remnant from the fragility of Linda’s health.

Eldest sister, Katharina, is not so sure at first, laden with a couple of kids and a husband she has reservations about keeping the domestic machine she has engineered running.

After some arm twisting and heart tugging, the trio is off to their old holiday stamping ground, a seaside town laced with family nostalgia.

Remembrances of things past prompt them to an audacious and impromptu trip to Paris to reconnect with an aunty.

This reunion sparks a flashpoint for Linda to seize the day and she has an out of the blue adventure with a Parisian woman that includes doing a runner and a rendezvous at Sacre Coeur.

Jordis Tribel is lovely as Linda, the middle sister cotton wooled by her siblings, yet it is she who is the great protector of their continuing relationship.

Nina Kunzendorf is superb as the stern Katherina and Lisa Hagmeister is delightful as eine kleine Clara.

In a couple of cameos, Angela Winkler as the aunt and Beatrice Dalle as Linda’s final fling accomplice give gravitas.

The Audi Festival of German Film runs from the 26th March until the 10th April, playing in the East at the Chauvel, and in the West at the Palace Norton Street Cinemas