“Roxanne drives her mother crazy. Maurice never speaks to his niece. Cynthia has a shock for her family. Monica can't talk to her husband. Hortense has never met her mother.”
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Mike Leigh
Simon Channing Williams
Mike Leigh
Dick Pope
Andrew Dickson
Brenda Blethyn
Cynthia Rose Purley
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Hortense Cumberbatch
Timothy Spall
Maurice Purley
Phyllis Logan
Monica Purley
Claire Rushbrook
Roxanne Purley
Lee Ross
Paul
Lesley Manville
The Social Worker
Elizabeth Berrington
Jane
Michele Austin
Dionne
Ron Cook
Stuart
Trevor Laird
Hortense's Brother
Brian Bovell
Hortense's Brother
... and 44 more
CRCulver
SECRETS AND LIES is a 1996 film by Mike Leigh that, appropriately enough, is concerned with the things that members of a family conceal from each other. Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a black woman in London who has made a successful career as an optician, knew from a young age that she was a...
Peter McGinn
If I ever get around to drawing up a list of my top 25 favorite non-blockbuster movies, Secrets and Lies would roll in very near the top. I have watched it a few times and expect I will continue to do so periodically. The acting is phenomenal. It is an ensemble cast, for sure, no superstars, but ...
Filipe Manuel Neto
**A good work, currently forgotten.** Just when I think I've seen all sorts of movies about racism, issues of race or prejudice, there's something new that comes out of nowhere, or some meritorious, well-made effort that's worth seeing. This film, initially, seemed to me just a sweet and average ...
Secrets & Lies Q&A | Mike Leigh in Conversation
Featurette • YouTube
Channel 4 Promo
Teaser • YouTube
Mike Leigh on the Making of Secrets & Lies
Featurette • YouTube
Official Trailer
Trailer • YouTube
United States TV Spot
Teaser • YouTube
Director's Cut: Mike Leigh on Secrets and Lies - Film 2011 With Claudia Winkleman - BBC
Featurette • YouTube
CiBy 2000
Channel Four Films
Thin Man Films