The Secrets

Naomi is the daughter of a well known rabbi and her religious learning is formidable. She asks to put off the marriage her father has arranged by a year; she wants to study at a religious seminary for women in Safed. There she shares a room with Michelle. The two are given the task of helping Anouk, a sick Frenchwoman living alone in the town. There is a crime in the woman's past and she wants to be cleansed of it. Avi Nesher's film tells two things at once: women's wish for access to Kabbalistic texts and rituals, and the relationship growing between Naomi and Michelle. Both lie outside the limit the community allows. Fanny Ardant plays Anouk. The film looks from inside the religious community and does not judge it from without; it frames the argument in that community's own language. Two hours and seven minutes.