Secrets and Lies

A Black Londoner named Hortense loses her adoptive mother and decides to search for her birth mother. She turns out to be a white woman named Cynthia, whose own life is already a mess: her “official” daughter treats her with contempt, and the rest of the family isn’t doing much better. Along with her mother, Hortense inherits a heap of pain, silence, and far too many watching eyes. Unsurprisingly, the sudden arrival of a long-lost relative stirs up a string of skeletons falling out of closets. But in the end, it’s exactly what this stale, rotting family needed: a cathartic purge.

Three awards at Cannes, including the Palme d’Or and Best Actress in 1996.