Secrets of the Heart

4/7/2026

**Secretos del Corazón (Secrets of the Heart, 1997)** _Directed by Montxo Armendáriz_ This may be the most imaginative and creative coming-of-age film I have ever seen. None of that "discovers sex," "learns own gender identity," or "grows up" that is so common to the genre. Here is a child whose naive unconditional love is gradually challenged by learning about the "warts" in his family, that is to say, about the very real, but very human, imperfections of the adults in his life. That's a profoundly different story, and Montxo Armendáriz tells it with grace, intelligence, and perfect cinematic framing. Andoni Erburu's performance as nine-year-old Javi is nothing short of amazing. The gradual acceptance of things that the child could not accept is played with such subtleness, so re