Secrets of the Heart

1997 1h 45m ES

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 47

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Carmelo Gómez
Tío
Charo López
María
Sílvia Munt
Madre
Vicky Peña
Rosa
Andoni Erburu
Javi
Álvaro Nagore
Juan
Íñigo Garcés
Carlos
Joan Vallès
Abuelo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Montxo Armendáriz
Writers: Montxo Armendáriz
Languages: Spanish
Countries: France, Portugal, Spain

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: France, Portugal, Spain.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Montxo Armendáriz, shot by Javier Aguirresarobe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Carmelo Gómez and Charo López and Sílvia Munt carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0120090 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 47 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Montxo Armendáriz directs. Javier Aguirresarobe behind the camera. Produced in France, Portugal, Spain. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
229 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 3 countries: France, Portugal, Spain.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Directed by Montxo Armendáriz, shot by Javier Aguirresarobe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Carmelo Gómez and Charo López and Sílvia Munt carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt0120090 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 47 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,727,000
Original language: ES
IMDB: Secrets of the Heart (1997)

Awards

Medalla del Cercle d'Escriptors Cinematogràfics al millor guió original
Medal of the Circle of Cinematographic Writers for the best film
Goya Award for Best Art Direction
Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Montxo Armendáriz

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

badelf2026-04-07
★ 10/10
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 real, it is magnetic. You watch this boy move from certainty to confusion to a kind of painful understanding, and Erburu never announces it, never overplays it. He's in practically every scene, and he earned every award he won. Set in rural Spain in the early 1960s, the film invites comparison to other Franco-era childhood films like Cría Cuervos and El Espíritu de la Colmena. But that connection is pretty well downplayed here. Except for the brief reference to the suicide of the soldier father, this story is timeless. It could take place in any culture anywhere. Here is a child investigating family secrets, overhearing things he shouldn't, and discovering that the adults he loves are flawed and complicated: This isn't about dictatorship or political oppression; this is about growing up and learning that love doesn't require perfection. Armendáriz's framing is perfect. Every shot feels considered, intimate, exactly right for a story told from a child's perspective. The film won four Goya Awards and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and it deserved every bit of recognition. There are so many things right about this film that it's difficult to know where to start, but perhaps the most important is this: it understands that coming of age isn't about what you discover about yourself, but what you discover about everyone else, and whether you can still love them anyway.

Production companies