Sisters of War

Drawing from Rod Miller's manuscript The Lost Women of Rabaul, director Brendan Maher brings a little known World War II story to light in this 2010 Australian made-for-TV movie. The narrative begins in 1942, following the Japanese attack on Papua New Guinea, as a group of Australian nuns (some originally from Germany and Italy), nurses, and wounded soldiers travel to the tiny Papuan mission station at Vunapope. Abandoned by their commanding officers, they become prisoners of war after the Japanese occupy the territory. While nurse Lorna Whyte (Sarah Snook) fears for her future, Sister Berenice Twohill (Claire van der Boom) puts her faith in God. Differences aside, the two divergent women find enough common ground—between brandy and Clark Gable—to forge a friendship, and their bond is tested through torture, beatings, starvation, bombings, and separation, after the Japanese shutter the hospital and remove first the patients and eventually the nurses. Held in captivity, the two friends would write to each other over the next three years (with no idea if their letters were actually reaching their destinations). The actual subjects appear at the end in a brief but very moving sequence. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)