Of course you know Ralph Fiennes, the superstar from The English Patient. And certainly also already his brother Joseph, who is just having his breakthrough onscreen. But they are only representing one quarter of the power family, and it is dead certain that we will hear - and see - much more of them in the future!

There are at least two good reasons why Joseph Fiennes, whose new movie Elizabeth I will be released at the end of this month, is currently traded as one of the most successful and sought-after actors. First: He has talent and can act - which he has recently proved in the summer comedy Martha - Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. Secondly: He simply is very good-looking and has charisma. The 28-year-old Englishman is exactly that type of man whom women still find erotic when he is just quietly sitting in a corner, reading a book. "Joe's erotic charisma is still evident in the cutting-room," says Shekhar Kapur, the director of Elizabeth I. "He has class, as an actor as well as a man."

But the real secret of his success is his family. A clan of seven persons who have what you normally only see in kitschy TV series, and what in real life always sounds too beautiful and sentimental to be true: Harmony, a feeling of belonging together, love, inspiration, backing. The Fiennes are always there for one another, they help each other wherever they can.

Apart from the parents Mark and Jini, members of the "Little Fiennes house on the prairie" are: Ralph, being the eldest at age 35, and at least since The English Patient an international superstar; Martha, 33, a film director; Sophie, 31, a freelance film maker; Magnus, 30, a composer. At the moment, three of the siblings are even working together. In Ralph's newest movie Onegin Martha directs and Magnus composes the music.

Only Jake, 28, Joseph's twin, has pulled out of the creative gene pool: He works as a gamekeeper in Norfolk. "Our father was a farmer before he became a photographer," he says. "I have probably inherited his rural genes, since I love the peaceful country life." But this doesn't affect the intimate relationship he has with the glamorous rest of the family. "I know that there are moments in which, in particular, Ralph would like to change places with me. Every now and then I even attend the movie premieres of my siblings, that's why I know exactly what kind of lives they are leading. It's a bit like the opening of the hunting season, when there are so many people that you can't see the trees anymore."

Sophie, who asked her siblings whether she is allowed to talk to Cosmopolitan prior to the interview, says "I find it quite natural that we are having such a close relationship. After all, our mother had given birth to six children in seven years. We have listened to the same music and made all the important experiences together."

Martha and Ralph provide an additional explanation for that fairy-tale-like "Little Brother and Little Sister" relationship of the Fiennes Clan: "We are what you call a 'bohemian family' in England. An elegant description of the fact that we have traveled through the country like gypsies," Martha says. And each time the Fiennes had once again decamped, "the social contacts we had built to other kids in school were over again," adds Ralph.

But not only the friendships of the Fiennes children but also their results at school suffered. "We moved 15 times," tells Joseph. "This meant a new school, new teachers and new teaching methods every year. My reports turned out quite lousy. Maybe this is one reason why I am so fascinated by historical topics. It gives me the feeling of being able to catch up on my education at the same time."

From time to time, when there was no money left for school, mother Jini Fiennes had taught her children all by herself. "Our mother always encouraged us to read, to draw and to express ourselves creatively," Sophie says. "She fostered our imagination, nurtured our soul and provided us with an enormous self-esteem. Her lessons never were about the gathering of facts." Her husband Mark Fiennes recalls: "Jini was always more interested in what people thought, what ideas they had. Simple knowledge never impressed her."

The worthy-to-be-filmed family history started in 1961: Jennifer "Jini" Lash and Mark Fiennes met at the house of common friends in Suffolk. Jini had just published her first book The Burial, Mark was a simple farm worker. "There are only very few moments in life in which a person is absolutely sure about something," he says now. "Meeting Jini was one of them. She sat on a sofa, looked at me and said "You don't have to worry too much about my writing. All I want are six children."

Within 18 months Jini and Mark were married, within seven years they had six children for whom she gave up her career as a writer. Actually, there are seven children, as there is another brother: Michael Emery, now 46 years old, a foster child who had been abandoned by his mother at the age of nine. After Sophie's birth Jini read an advertisement in "The Times" where Michael was urgently searching for parents "who would love him and allow him to read as much as he wanted to." Meanwhile Michael is a part of the clan just like all the others.

"It still moves me deeply how my mother who as a child had never received a taste of love or warmth, had been able to be such a good mother to us," says Ralph. "It must have been her incredible imagination to give us exactly that which creates security."

Television was scorned in the Fiennes house. Instead, Jini inspired her children to read, draw - and act, she rehearsed Ralph's role with him when he was preparing for a school play. "We all want to hear that our work has a certain value. Not flattery, but an honest opinion. My mother could judge us very well. She always took a passionate interest in our work."

In 1986, Jini was diagnosed with cancer, and after a serious operation she went on a journey in 1990 through France and Spain to go to pilgrimage places there. On her own. She wrote down her memories about it in her book On Pilgrimage (Bloomsbury Publishing). When Jini died in hospital on December 28, 1993, the family took her home, her body wrapped in a white linen. Countless candles were lit in the room in which she had been bedded prior to the funeral; together with friends the clan sang religious songs. "A normal funeral was absolutely out of the question for our family," explains Ralph. "But the stimulus to say good-bye to our mother together and at home came from my father. This shows how close my parents had been all their lives."

A coffin was fitted and painted bright "electric"-blue - the colour Jini had chosen in her (unpublished) book Tristam and the Power of the Lights as a symbol for strength, peace and spirituality. (She had written the book for her children, to read it to them before they went to sleep.) Her four sons Ralph, Magnus, Jake and Joseph carried the coffin to the grave, let it down and covered it with humid soil.

Later the clan had met for a spiritual session and had tried to contact their mother in the hereafter. "I don't know whether we really communicated with her," Ralph Fiennes once said in an interview with 'Vanity Fair,' "but as long as nobody proves to the contrary, I believe it. I think there is another world after death, that life isn't just over. There are moments when I am nervous, timid or very upset. And then I suddenly have the feeling that my mother is very close to me. And I feel better."

In numerous obituaries Jini had been honoured above all as a woman and mother "who had much to give - and gave so much love to everybody around her." But her abilities as a writer were mostly ignored. Only on April 10, 1997, more than three years after her death, Blood Ties was published. It was self-understood for the Fiennes children to help to make the new book known. They toured with Blood Ties through British bookshops and read from it.

Even after the death of their mother the children continue to be close-knit, spending every Christmas and all birthdays together. "We would probably see each other much more often" Joseph says. "But well, we are in film business, and much on the road." Sounds almost too ideal to be true. Aren't there any bad moods? Joseph for example is definitely annoyed when film agents are only interested in him because of his surname. Does it in fact bother him when he is being compared with his more famous brother?

"It doesn't have an influence on me because we are completely different. Formerly I used to be a bit worried. I always thought: 'Big brother is watching you' - hopefully you don't do anything stupid now. That would simply be embarrassing for Ralph - and the family."