REVIEW: THE SECRETS

BY Maria Bazhlekova


Avi Nesher’s drama The Secrets (Ha Sodot) is a paradox. It centers on a girl, Naomi (Ania Bukstein), who has the desire to study scripture as intended in the Orthodox Jewish tradition yet yearns to break out of its shackles and become a female Rabbi. She convinces her father to allow her to study at a seminary before marrying her traditional fiancé. There she befriends a fellow student, Michel (Michal Shtamler), and the two set out to help Anouk (Fanny Ardant), a woman with deteriorating mental and physical health, gain forgiveness from God even though she has committed a heinous crime deemed unforgivable by the Orthodox Jewish teachings. The event leads the young girls to experiment with Kabbalah in order to lead Anouk to atonement.

Nesher’s previous work includes mostly B-grade action and horror flicks such as: Doppelganger: The Evil Within, a horror flick about Drew Barrymore’s murderous alter ego, and Raw Nerve, a thriller centering around a rogue cop. The Secrets is far retreat from his previous body of work. Here, the atmosphere he creates in the small Israeli town is spot on, it’s immersive and rich. The subject matter becomes palpable even to anyone who has no experience with or knowledge of Orthodox Judaism. But Naomi’s struggle to define herself by progressive terms in an otherwise archaic belief system is the only interesting characterization in the film. Anouk’s and Michel’s storylines unfortunately fall into clichéd pitfalls from which they never recover. A love story developed between the two leads is handled sweetly and masterfully until it falls into a place where many Sapphic love stories eventually go, when Michel decides that it would easier to take a more traditional path through life. It does, however, serve to show us the evolution of Naomi— once she accepts her sexuality she never looks back or runs scared to traditions.

The film is unevenly paced with a slow start that contrasts negatively with a relatively quick final act. If Nesher was going for a slow, atmospheric start to set the tone, he didn’t quite accomplish it. The beginning just feels slow and tedious. Just as the pace is uneven, so is Nesher’s direction. He has difficulty reining his material in and it eventually spirals into an uncomfortable melodrama. An elimination of about thirty minutes of material, some clichéd dialogue and scenes would have done wonders for The Secrets. In the context of Nesher’s previous efforts, the otherwise forgettable film deserves mild applause.