Adapted from Philippe Grimbert’s celebrated autobiographical novel, A SECRET follows the saga of a French Jewish family from World War II to the present. This is a complex story filled with warmth, sensuality and drama. It begins in the early 1950s in Paris. The story initially focuses on François, an imaginative child who has invented an older brother. He knows nothing about his parents’ past. In place of a factual history, he creates elaborate fantasies that portray his parents as glorious, shining stars.

When he turns fifteen, however, an aunt enlightens François about the realities of his family’s history, shattering his illusions, and prompting him to probe into the many family shadows surrounding the Nazi occupation in an effort to piece together his heritage.

The film, directed by Claude Miller, is shaped and narrated with a sensibility as emotionally compelling as it is artistically unique. The secret in question, and the expansive narrative that it shapes, unfold in layers of vibrantly colorful flashbacks, contrasting with the muted shades of the present, wherein an adult François continues to search for answers.

The film features beautiful performances from such notables of contemporary French cinema as Patrick Bruel, Ludivine Sagnier, Cécile de France, and Mathieu Amalric.