Life in the kingdom of crooked mirrors: the untold fates of the twins Oli and Yalo

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1963, all-Union fame came to these girls - after the screens came out the film "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors"where they played the main roles. The twins Olya and Yalo conquered the audience, but they never became actresses. Having starred again in an episode of the film "Frost", they disappeared from the screens forever. Fate gave chances Olga and Tatiana Yukin to arrange their lives, but after perestroika, having lost their jobs, they sank to the bottom.

Yukina's sisters were born in a simple family: their father worked in a factory, and their mother in an atelier. The girls got to the cinema quite by accident: in a district club in Moscow, they held a competition among twins. 7 couples took part - they recited poetry and sang. 9-year-old Olya and Tanya Yukin were the most charming and artistic. At this time, director A. Rowe was looking for twins for his new fairy tale film. Yukina's sisters seemed to him ideal candidates. He invited them to the Studio. Gorky, and the tests were successful.

The shooting took place in the Crimea, where the girls were for the first time and could not hide their delight. To avoid confusion on the set, Olya was given the role of her namesake, and Tanya played Yalo. In life, their characters were exactly the opposite: the capricious heroine, who did not obey her grandmother and was lazy, was played by the more judicious, calm and restrained Olya, and the cocky fidget Tanya got her reflection Yalo.

The film "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors" was recognized as the best children's film in 1963. Critics appreciated the acting talent of the Yukin sisters. After the premiere, the girls and their mother were invited to the Kremlin and presented with gifts. The spectators filled up the twins with letters, the boys confessed their love. In their school, they became real stars, but this did not affect their behavior. Without waiting for an invitation to shoot in a new film, the sisters themselves wrote a letter to Alexander Rowe asking him to give them the opportunity to act in films again. And the director responded - the twins played in an episode of the film "Frost". But this was the end of the Yukins' film career.

They said that the sisters did not go to study at the drama studio because of family problems: my father drank heavily, scandals happened every day. After school, Tatyana tried to enter the theater institute, but did not pass the competition. Perhaps, otherwise, their lives could have turned out completely differently. A classmate recalls: “As children, they were adorable little girls. They grew up - they became ordinary girls, albeit very pretty. Their mother, a simple, down-to-earth woman, did not find the acting profession tempting. She often said to her daughters: “You need to get a reliable profession in order to stand firmly on your feet.” And the Yukins entered the mechanical engineering college.

After graduation, the twins married one after another and gave birth to children. Both got a job at the Intourist hotel. Classmates envied them - in those days it was a lucky ticket, because such work guaranteed wealth and access to foreign goods. Once a quarter, Intourist employees were given a special order: they could buy equipment, clothing, footwear or food. Yukin's sisters were engaged in sending groups of Soviet tourists abroad, they themselves often visited Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Olga's son, Maksim, had imported jeans and baseball caps, he treated his friends with foreign chewing gum and sweets, and invited him to his house to watch the video.

After perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the sisters lost their jobs. The twins made odd jobs and sold out equipment. Then they got a job at the military registration and enlistment office on a meager salary. Living conditions were incomparable with the previous ones. Both began to drink, Olga soon quit her job. After suffering two strokes, she died in 2005 at the age of 52.

Tatiana missed her sister very much and drowned her grief in wine. At work, they felt sorry for her and did not fire her for a long time, despite her constant absenteeism. And in March 2011 she was gone. She survived her sister by only 6 years. Unfortunately, Ole and Yalo never managed to get out of their kingdom of crooked mirrors.

The fate of many young actors in the future was not associated with cinema: who became the stars of children's films when they grew up.