Naomi Rapace Permeates with Total Command in The Secrets We Keep

 

How would you feel if you were minding your business, walking down the street and you saw the face of someone you were positive had caused you great trauma in the past.  The type of trauma that sears your soul for an eternity from which some never fully recover.

In a small U.S. town, far from the horrors of the Nazi labor camp where Maja (Noomi Rapace) was held with other Romani prisoners, she and her American husband Lewis (Chris Messina) have built a beautiful life. But, when Maja catches a glimpse of a stranger (Joel Kinnaman) whistling, her mind spirals back to a nightmare that has subconsciously imprisoned her brain.  Is he the German soldier who brutalized her and murdered her younger sister? After 15 years, can she be sure?  Baby, that’s when things take a twisted shift.  Over the next few days, Lewis watches on in horror as Maja torments her captive, only offering release if he confesses.

Star and Executive Producer, Rapace, who shot to international stardom in the title role of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, delivers a spellbound, fierce and fiery performance as Maja, begging us to ask the question of whether revenge can heal tragedy and if peace is ever possible.  Taking Maja off the page and making her trauma beyond rooted in reality Noomi Rapace proves that women are and always have been forces to be reckoned with…especially when pushed emotionally. Her fearless, emotional and physically demanding role is quite wonderful to behold.

 

Directed by Yuval Adler with a screenplay by Ryan Covington and Adler. The manner in which the tension builds and culminates in this thriller/drama is quite stellar. Covington was inspired by an interview he heard with a woman who survived the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, who described an episode of PTSD triggered by overhearing an angry German launch into a public tirade.   “She simply broke,” Covington recalls. “I found it particularly interesting the way women deal and try to heal from war trauma while rebuilding a life after dehumanization and genocide.”

Kolja Brandt (Director of Photography),  Nate Jones (Production Designer) and Christina Flannery (Costume Designer) collectively created a world where the audience is immediately transported into an American era where wardrobe, makeup, hair and environment were pristine a simply gorgeous.

Everyone has a piece of information that we keep close to the vest.  What’s yours?  It’s a question that will permeate your subconscious well past the rolling of credits.  Also Starring Joel Kinnaman and Chris Messina,  the Bleecker Street produced thriller – The Secrets We Keep in theaters now and begins  streaming on October 16th.