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 cozy life. But as she runs errands along the main street of her small town, Maja glimpses a stranger (Joel Kinnaman) whistling a nightmarishly familiar tune. Spiraling back to a night she has tried to forget, she fears he is the German soldier named Karl who brutalized her and murdered her younger sister. But after 15 years, can she be sure? Fearful that her tragic past has come back to haunt her, she begins to stalk the man, hoping to convince herself she is wrong.
Rapace, who shot to international stardom in the title role of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, delivers a searing performance as Maja, a survivor torn between revenge and reconciliation. At once a gripping thriller and a thought-provoking examination of the aftermath of violence, The Secrets We Keep asks whether revenge can heal tragedy and if solace is ever possible.
FOLCS was pleased to offer an advance screening of The Secrets We Keep, ahead of a Conversation on the film with actor, Noomi Rapace, and director, Yuval Adler, on September 13, 2020.
Watch The Secrets We Keep: Advance Screening and Conversation here.
Yuval Adler
Director
Writer/Director Yuval Adler studied Mathematics at Tel Aviv University and later moved to New York where he received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University before switching full time to writing and directing films.
Bethlehem, his first feature, won 6 Israeli Academy Awards and was Israel’s entry for the 2014 Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category. Yuval since wrote and directed The Operative starring Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman, which premiered at the Berlinale, and he has just finished The Secrets We Keep starring Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman. He is currently developing a show for HBO.
Noomi Rapace
Actor; Executive Producer
Noomi Rapace captured the eyes of the international entertainment community with her commanding, unnerving and critically acclaimed portrayal of ‘Lisbeth Salander’ in the film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. In addition to her powerful presence on screen, as a gifted creative and thought leader, Rapace has a discerning eye with strong instincts that aid in translating and realizing storytelling for audiences.
This Fall, Rapace has Yuval Adler’s The Secrets We Keep, opposite Joel Kinnaman and Chris Messina, in which she stars and also executive produced. She portrays ‘Maja,’ a woman rebuilding her life along with her husband in New York after WWII when they encounter an eerily familiar man and life starts to unravel. Bleecker Street is expected to release the film in theaters in the US on September 16, 2020 and on VOD on October 16, 2020.
Upcoming, Rapace will be seen starring in Valdimar Jóhannsson’s supernatural drama, Lamb. The film tells the story of a childless couple who are sheep farmers in Iceland who find a newborn and decide to keep the child and raise it as their own regardless of the consequences. The film is expected to release in 2021. Additionally, Rapace will be seen starring in Oscar nominated director, Tom Van Avermaet’s short film, Hearts of Stone.
Most recently, Rapace was seen starring in season two of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, opposite John Krasinski for Amazon in 2019. In the series, she portrays ‘Harriet Baumann,’ a formidable agent in Germany’s Secret Intelligence who meets up with ‘Jack Ryan’ in South America.
Rapace began her acting career at the age of seven, in Iceland’s In the Shadow of the Raven. She has since gone to appear in over twenty films and television shows. In 2007, she made her mark on the big screen with a breakthrough performance in the 2007 Danish film, Daisy Diamond. In the film, Rapace portrays a troubled teen-mother who leaves her home to pursue a dream, ultimately failing and having a breakdown with fatal consequences. For her performance, she was honored with the Bodil Award (Denmark) and a Robert Award for Best Actress (Denmark).
She garnered high praise for her breakthrough performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first installment of the Millennium Trilogy. She won the Best Actress Guldbagge Award (Sweden) and the Best Actress International Jupiter Award (Germany) in addition to being nominated for an Orange British Academy Film Award for Lead Actress and a Best Actress European Film Award for her role. Rapace garnered subsequent praise for her performances in the second and third installments, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.
Additional film credits include Kim Farrant’s Angel of Mine; Robert Budreau’s Stockholm, co-starring opposite Ethan Hawke; Vicky Jewson’s Close, David Ayer’s fantasy realm film Bright, alongside Will Smith and Joel Edgerton; Mikael Hafstrom’s Unlocked; Tommy Wirkola’s What Happened to Monday?; Steven Shainberg’s sci-fi adventure thriller Rupture, alongside Peter Stormare and Kerry Bishe; Daniel Espinosa’s film adaptation of the critically acclaimed Tom Rob Smith novel, Child 44, opposite Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman and Jason Clarke; Michaël R. Roskam’s crime drama The Drop alongside Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini; Niels Arden Oplev’s Dead Man Down in which she reunited with director and starred opposite Colin Farrell; Guy Ritchie’s sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law; as well as Brian DePalma’s Passion, alongside Rachel McAdams and Karoline Herfurth.
Notably, in 2011, Rapace starred in Pernilla August’s directorial debut of the Swedish film, Beyond (Svinalägorna), which won the Venice Film Festival Critic’s Week prize as well as the Nordic Council Film Prize, and additionally, for which Rapace received a Guldbagge Best Actress’ Award for her performance. That same year, Rapace was starred in Pål Sletaune’s Norwegian thriller Babycall, for which she received the Best Actress honor at the Rome Film Festival.