The Secrets We Keep is a period piece/thriller that makes the most of its limited location to create ongoing tension. Its story is self-contained within a single Norman Rockwell–esque 1950s suburb, particularly the protagonist’s home and basement, and uses that setting to explore the survivor’s guilt she has kept hidden for years until a source of that trauma may have resurfaced. Though the film’s central mystery never delivers any major twists to throw viewers off-guard, the performances still keep it engaging from start to finish.

Noomi Rapace plays Maja, a Romanian immigrant who now lives comfortably in an unnamed American town with her husband, Lewis (Chris Messina), and son in the late 1950s. The two met in Greece after World War II, where he was stationed in the Medical Corps, and eventually they moved to the States, currently living the American Dream. However, chance observations of a tall blond man (Joel Kinnaman) walking across town sends Maja into a state of abject dread. She kidnaps the man and, unable to shoot him near a dug out grave, she instead holds him captive in her basement.

Maja reveals to Lewis that before they met, she was a concentration camp prisoner because of her Romani heritage and she lost nearly her entire family to the Nazis’ war crimes. During an attempt to reenter Romania, she was caught, raped, and shot by a group of drunk Germans, one of whom she believes to be this man. However, he claims to be someone else entirely: Thomas Steinmann, a Swiss immigrant who never left his country when the war broke out and is currently a factory worker and family man to his wife, Rachel (Amy Seimetz), and their daughter. No matter how strong his alibi looks, Maja refuses to believe him and will do whatever it takes to obtain a confession of guilt.

The story goes for an obvious Hitchcockian setup, mixed with the ethical dilemmas of Dennis Villeneuve’s Prisoner. Maja’s steadfast belief in Thomas’s guilt is the only justification Lewis, or the viewer, has to go along with the torture; the majority of scenes focus on her interrogating her prisoner. Thomas, of course, claims to know nothing about what Maja’s talking about, leaving Lewis playing the semi-good cop: unwilling to leave his wife but growing increasingly worried that she’s doing this out of fear rather than facts. After all, what are the legitimate odds of a Nazi rapist settling down blocks away from his victim?

Much of the tension stems from Maja being simultaneously empathetic and a potentially unreliable narrator, and Rapace is the glue that keeps this story engaging. Playing the character as equal parts rage-driven and vulnerable, she definitely gives a meatier performance compared to Kinnaman, Messina, and Seimetz, all of whom are clearly supporting players to Maja’s actions. Still, the psychological parallels between Maja and Thomas are intriguing, both being immigrants with American partners who know little about their European pasts.

Admittedly, despite its brief 97-minute runtime, the drama dawdles just a bit in the middle to pad out Thomas’s imprisonment. One failed escape attempt comes across as contrived given his inability to recognize a door chain lock, and Maja’s later interactions with Rachel feel one-sided, never really bringing Seimetz’s character further into the plot. Still, director Yuval Adler manages to keep the action going through strong dialogue-driven sequences. His film also uniquely focuses on the trauma of a Romani Holocaust survivor.

The Secrets We Keep’s main drawback is that its central mystery leaves little room for any explosive reveals. However, the performances have enough dimensions to make its predictable moments feel nuanced.