directed by: Mike Leigh, year: 1996
actors: Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall

Secrets & Lies centers on Hortense, a young woman who learns her long-lost mother is working-class Cynthia, and invites a revealing meeting. Tensions unfold in a London flat as the film probes race, class, and family secrets with Leigh's intimate, naturalistic style. Through sharp dialogue and strong performances, it explores the fragile, sometimes surprising bonds between mothers and daughters, and the cost of truth.

Family Secrets, Drama, British Drama, Social Realism