Secrets & Lies is a 1996 British drama film directed and written by Mike Leigh. The film revolves around Hortense Cumberbatch, a young black optometrist who is frustrated by her lack of knowledge about her birth parents. She decides to track down her birth mother and finds Cynthia Purley, a working-class white woman who denies being her mother at first.
As they get to know each other, Cynthia’s secrets are slowly exposed. She is revealed to be a troubled and unhappy woman who has never been able to have children with her partner, and has also kept the adoption of her daughter a secret from her family, including her alcoholic younger brother, Maurice, and her resentful daughter, Roxanne.
As Hortense and Cynthia navigate their new relationship, the Purley family dynamics are also exposed. Roxanne’s husband, a car salesman, is having an affair with her best friend, while Maurice struggles with his own loneliness and addiction.
The film’s climax revolves around a family gathering hosted by Cynthia where all the secrets come to light. The film ends with the characters forced to confront the truth about themselves and each other, and grappling with their own emotions and the complexities of love and family.
Secrets & Lies was well-received by critics and won the Palme d’Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. It is regarded as one of Mike Leigh’s most moving and powerful films.