The Secrets – DVD Review

To say The Secrets, the newest film by Israeli director Avi Nesher, is busy is an understatement. The story, all told within about two hours, shifts from a film about cultural barriers, to a film about feminism, to a film about atonement, to a film with a lesbian soap opera at it’s forefront, and so on. Although it is a well-acted and engaging melodrama, the film stumbles the most when it loses sight of characters in favor of fitting the next plot point in. 

The story, set in Safed (one of the four sacred cities in Israel), centers around Naomi (Ania Bukstein, a clone of Rachel Weisz), a well-studied daughter of a respected rabbi. She is set to be married to Michael (Guri Alfi), a suitor hand-selected by her father, however she requests that the marriage be put on hold so that she can continue religious studies at a seminary in Safed.

It’s at this seminary that she meets one of her roommates, Michelle (Michal Shtamler), a Parisian student who lives according to her own rules. The two are given an assignment, which Naomi only reluctantly accepts, which entails bringing food to a dying woman who lives near the seminary, Anouk (Fanny Ardant). Naomi and Michelle discover that Anouk spent 15 years in prison after the murder of her lover. When Anouk learns that the girls know of the incident, she begs them to lead her through Jewish cleansing rituals to let her die in peace.

Although Naomi and Michelle don’t think of each other much when first introduced, the audience clearly picks up on sexual tension between the two. It builds up steadily throughout the rest of the film, and about halfway in there is a wildly romantic scene where the lovers lustfully writhe together in bed. 

The problem with the film, however, is that it’s not sure what it is. At times, we feel that this is an extremely liberal-feminist look at organized religion and it’s frequent suppression of women, whereas at other moments it’s all about an old woman begging for forgiveness to a God that’s not her own. It feels unfocused and almost too anecdotal to fully expand on anything it comments on. A more concentrated effort on any of the subplots of the film would be a far more successful picture.

Although The Secrets is overwrought, the performances by Ania Bukstein and Guri Alfi are worth seeing. The film has good ideas, too many of them, in fact, but as a soap opera it’s both engaging and romantic.

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