‘Accidental Brothers’ tells the story of life apart

Accidental Brothers tells the story of two sets of swapped twins. This Netflix documentary tells the true story of these young Colombians who were mistakenly swapped at birth and reveals how they met again 25 years later.

The script of the play was written by Alessandro Angulo and Diego Chaleira. It should be noted that the first was also in charge of the direction.

This Colombian-made feature film explores the lives of Jorge and Carlos Bernal and William and Wilbur Cañas, who grew up in different environments without knowing that their true biological families were different.

How did the documentary arrive?

In 2014, the Colombian show “Séptimo día” announced the exchange of twins, which was then discussed in different programs around the world until the creation of “Accidental Brothers”.

According to the synopsis provided by the media Prensa Libre and Rating Cero, the existence of the exchange was revealed almost by accident after a woman named Laura Vega visited a butcher shop in Bogota with her friend Yaneth. There, Laura saw that the butcher William Canas (one of the transformed twins and cousin of Yaneth’s husband) and her friend Jorge Enrique Bernal Castro were the same person. In fact, at first he thought it was him.

Laura and Yannis continue their investigation until they discover that the two young people have an identical twin and become aware of the communication between the two families. They talk to Jorge and from that point on, the true story begins to come to light.

Jorge, a mechanical engineering student, decided to look for William Cañas Velasco on Facebook. But he was even more surprised when he saw a picture of William and his brother Wilbur, who looked exactly like Jorge’s twin, Carlos.

After some time, the four of them meet and the twins feel emotionally shaken considering how it feels to face this event 25 years later. The story continues to the present day and what has happened between them, their similarities and differences, families and education.

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The case took place at the Bogota Maternity and Child Hospital, where Carlos and Jorge were born on December 21, 1988, the day after Wilbur and William were born.

In addition to the twins, Accidental Brothers also stars Juan Guillermo Mercado, Manuel Teodoro, Don Francisco (Mario Luis Kreuzberg), Chiquibaby (Stephanie Simonides), Brooke Baldwin, Laura Vega, Yanet Paez and Dr. Nancy Siegel, who gives her own take on the case: “This is the kind of experiment that scientists dream of, but they could never do ethically.”

According to the Colombian portal Cambio, the production team of this documentary faced many challenges. On the one hand, there was the investigation and organization of archival materials involving many people.

“As always, the greatest difficulty was acquiring the document. Often people throw away or lose photos and videos, which makes archaeological work difficult. On the other hand, telling four stories is always a challenge, even more so in this case involving a living relationship that continues to this day. The premise of the exchange of twins, the chance meeting again, was a great trigger for the story. It was fascinating to get to know them, to get to know each and every one of their worlds,” Alessandro Angulo said in an interview with the aforementioned website.