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“Sisters” Film Details
- Runtime: 88 Minutes
- Date Seen: Film Festival – NewFest Pride 2025
- Public Release Date: May 29, 2025
- Director(s): Susie Yankou
- Writer(s): Susie Yankou
- Based On Work By: Sarah Khasrovi, Susie Yankou
- Genre(s): Comedy, Young Adult, LGBT+
- Rating: Not Rated
- Distributor: NewFest
Summary
For most of Lou’s life, her father has acted as a damper on her accomplishments, her mood, her dreams, and now he has died. With his death comes the introduction of Priya, a surprise older sister but Lou has spent years with Esther operating in that role – and Esther has excelled at it. However, being introduced to Priya’s world and being welcomed is different for Lou regarding family, and is something even Esther doesn’t really have. So as they navigate a third wheel losing the negative connotation and the group becoming a tri-cycle, we watch in Sisters how chosen family and blood family can co-exist and be beneficial.
Cast and Characters
Lou (Susie Yankou)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Lou is a song writer who recently has come out as bi-sexual but her main focus is her relationship with her dad. He has been highly critical and a downer for almost all of her life and his death and how others see him, sans Esther, leads to complicated feelings.
Priya (Kausar Mohammed)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Priya is Lou’s older half sister, from an affair, who is an interior designer to the stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow. She is also well-traveled, educated, and pretty much the epitome of the smart, supportive, and overall cool older sister.
Esther (Sarah Khasrovi)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Esther has been Lou’s best friend since they were 18, and while Lou has her own issues with her parents, Esther does too. Coming from a Persian family, lying about being a doctor, and being an up-and-coming comedian, Esther finds herself constantly juggling who her parents want her to be, including being married, with who she is.
Raffa (Anna Garcia)
- Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
- Character Summary: Raffa was a chance meeting that happened because Priya, knowing better and doing better, took Lou to a nice place where Raffa was shopping with her friend. She comes off like the type of person Lou would usually make fun of but, once she got to know her, Raffa became a crush and one of the first women Lou got to knew after coming out as bi.
Why Is “Sisters” Not Rated?
- Dialog:
- Cursing: Mild
- Discriminatory Language: No
- Innuendo: None
- Suicide Mentions: No
- Violence:
- Gun Violence: None
- Violence Against Animals: No
- Violence Against Children: No
- Domestic Violence: No
- Gore/ Blood: None
- Body Horror: No
- Notable Violence: None
- Sexual Content:
- Nudity: Implied
- Sexual Situations: None
- Sexual Violence: No
- Miscellaneous:
- Drinking: Yes
- Drug Use: Smoking (Weed)
- Vomiting: No
- Smoking: No
- Vermin: None
Links
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- Official Site Link
Review and Commentary
Highlight(s)
The Unexpected Blessing of a Healthy Sibling Bond [83/100]
For many only children, there’s often a lifelong fantasy of what it would be like to have a sibling—someone to play with as a child, someone to lean on as an adult, and someone who shares those deeply embedded family memories, whether bitter or sweet. In Sisters, Lou gets to experience that fantasy made real through Priya, her older half-sister.
What makes this bond special is that it’s not rooted in obligation or proximity, but choice. Priya actively chooses to build a relationship with Lou—not out of guilt or responsibility, but because she understands the value of connection. Despite not growing up together, Priya meets Lou with openness, patience, and an emotional maturity that Lou rarely sees in her parents. Priya has even had time to process her own wounds, particularly from her mother, who was similar in temperament to their father. This gives her the perspective and compassion Lou needs—even if she isn’t quite ready to receive it fully.
But Priya does represent the older sister fantasy—cool, grounded, forgiving, and, most of all, emotionally available. She tries to bring Lou into her world, introduces her to people, and tries to help rewire the internalized negativity that came from their father. In doing so, she offers a blueprint for healing that Lou’s close friend Esther, as much as she loves her, simply can’t. Esther and Lou bonded over mutual survival and distance from their parents, forming a sisterhood in the absence of family support. But Priya complicates that in the best way—she’s blood family, and yet also the rare kind who chooses to show up.
Yes, Priya’s take on their dad might be more generous than Lou can handle. But her presence still affirms how meaningful it is to have a blood relation who actively models what love, forgiveness, and growth can look like. For Lou, that might be jarring—but it’s also life-changing.
The Power Of Chosen Family [82/100]
However, it remains undeniable the place chosen family has not only in Lou’s life, but in the life of people in general. As much as the familiarity and assumed permanence of blood relations is an asset, as shown through both Lou and Esther’s parents, this isn’t a guarantee. That is why you need to seek someone who gets your jokes, who will join in when you make fart jokes over dinner, and who you know isn’t obligated to support you because you’re family but, as the name implies, they have chosen to be an active part of your life.
In many ways, chosen family is neither a supplement or a substitute, it is an equal and a reminder that, community takes many forms and while the words may change depending on who you talk to, best friend, play cousin, sister/brother, what have you, it doesn’t negate that bond whether formed through trauma, culture, proximity, or a plethora of other things which made you feel seen, some form of normal (even if just in your shared bubble), and loved in ways which may hold more accountability and require more action than blood relations desire or pursue.
On The Fence
Wishing We Got To See More Of Raffa [77/100]
Halfway through the movie we are introduced to Raffa, someone from the westside, the beach communities, and I’d submit her introduction acted as a notable turning point. For one, with Priya’s lifestyle coming off like someone from the west, Lou, and Esther to a point, got to actually meet and know someone who had privilege but wasn’t an ass. So when it came to Raffa, Lou not only having friendly conversation, but a crush, and Priya sort of playing wingwoman for the whole thing? I feel like it should have been taken further.
This especially feels true since Lou didn’t get much support for coming out from her parents, and I think I could have added another layer to what Priya’s arrival in Lou’s life meant. Yet, unfortunately, Raffa comes and goes, and as much as you may want more, she disappears after a kiss.
Overall
Our Rating (81/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)
Sisters thoughtfully examines the layered nature of connection—through blood, choice, and fleeting opportunity. At its core is the warm, emotionally grounded relationship between Lou and her older half-sister Priya, who embodies the ideal older sibling many only children fantasize about. Their bond, rooted in emotional availability and mutual effort rather than obligation, becomes a healing counterpoint to the dysfunction of their shared father. Priya’s presence offers Lou a path forward and a glimpse of what familial love can look like when modeled with intention and care.
At the same time, Sisters doesn’t discount the power of chosen family. Lou’s best friend Esther—someone who stood in as a sister long before Priya arrived—remains a testament to the enduring power of relationships built through shared experience and survival. Together, Priya and Esther offer a fuller picture of love: one formed through blood, the other through choice.
However, the story introduces a third thread that, while promising, feels underdeveloped: Raffa. Introduced midway through the film, Raffa represents not only a new romantic interest for Lou but also a potential symbol of queer identity, comfort, and possibility. Her brief presence adds texture but ultimately feels like a missed opportunity. Expanding on her role could have deepened Lou’s journey and added even more nuance to how new people can spark transformation.
In all, Sisters offers a beautiful, if slightly incomplete, meditation on the many shapes love and connection can take—and how each one, in its own way, has the power to heal.
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