Product Details

• Actors: Fanny Ardant, Ania Bukstein, Michal Shtamler, Adir Miller
• Directors: Avi Nesher
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: French, Hebrew
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MONTEREY VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001E2PQGG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,703 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

SECRETS (SODOT HA) - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary - One of the Best to Come from Israel, May 26, 2009

By 

Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets (DVD)

Call it an acquired taste. First of all I am Jewish and I have spent a considerable amount of time studying its religious texts...Thus a film about the process of analyzing scripture or the Talmud is likely to find favor in my eyes whereas others might gravitate towards science fiction or romantic comedy.

I thought "The Secrets" was one of the best dramas to arrive from Israel...but it is not in the mold of a holocaust memory film, a war film, or an exploration of ethnic tensions.

The movie is about personal choices, moral choices, partner choices. Ostensibly it revolves around a story of Noemi, a very bright young woman - a daughter of an important rabbi in the Orthodox community - who asks to study for one more year rather than rush into a marriage dictated by her father,

She first approaches problems as a "know-it-all", and then discovers that others have answers, even to tough religious and moral questions. Through that process, she develops a deep, let's say, intimate relationship with another young woman, Michal, in the Orthodox seminary. But this movie is not really about a same-sex relationship as it it about making choices...some of those choices carry great personal baggage and some of those choices are entirely unorthodox.

All the performances are top notch. Two scenes stick out in my mind. In the first, Noemi is deep in the library analying the Talmud to find a way to help a troubled, mortally sick stranger repair her broken relationship to God. She does so even when the traditional rabbis have all but given up on the stranger. The second scene involves the prospective groom of Michal - a pharmacist who moonlights as a klezmer musician - who reveals great courage (and tolerance) in asking Noemi to come to his upcoming wedding. When he makes that request he knows that Noemi has been intimate with his bride. (How many us, religious or not, orthodox or not, could do that!)

A final remark. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I don't experience the ending of the film as negative. Just the opposite. In summary, "The Secrets" is not only an excellent movie, it is a meaningful one.

64 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good film with a bummer of an ending, May 17, 2009

By 

K. E. Fox "Voracious reader and movie fanatic" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secrets (DVD)

I bought this film based on supposed lesbian relationship discussed in the teaser. As I watched this well crafted and acted film, I was swept away by the intense storyline of a young woman pursuing her dream to become a rabbi, despite the misogynistic culture/religion of Orthodox Judaism. I also enjoyed the storyline of the two young women in a feminist seminary trying to give peace to an older woman who was dying of cancer, and had been rejected by the town. However, what really killed this movie for me was the very unhappy ending of the two female leads, who were supposedly in love. I have literally seen dozens of films and tv shows where two women who are in love can never lively happily ever after at the end of the show and this film fit that bitter and homophobic cliche to a 'T.' The romance between the two women might not have been important to anyone else but it was very important to me. I cried at the end of this movie because I was so bitterly disappointed.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotionally stirring tale, highly recommended, April 13, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secrets (DVD)

The Secrets: A Film by Avi Nesher is a multiple award-winning movie about Naomi, the intelligent, faithful, and devoted daughter of an orthodox rabbi who must prepare for difficult choices in her life when her mother dies and she has to marry her father's prodigy. She begs her father for a year to study at a women's religious seminary to prepare for the sacrifices she must make as a wife and mother, and is permitted to do so. She befriends a schoolmate, Michelle, and a sickly older woman, Anouk (played by Fanny Ardant), who might be guilty of a terrible crime of passion. Naomi invents a progression of rituals designed to help Anouk release her sins, a process which brings Naomi and Michelle closer together - close enough to develop a forbidden attraction. An emotionally stirring tale, highly recommended. Special features include a "behind the scenes" video with subtitled actor interviews, deleted scenes, two music videos, and a photo gallery. Rated R, 127 minutes, Hebrew with English subtitles.