Secret Passage

An interesting historical story that relies mainly on the acting performances and is supported by appealing production design and nice camerawork. The music is also pretty successful. The story begins in 1492 in Spain and involves persecution of the Jews. The movie itself takes place in Venice in 1507, where two sisters pretending to be Catholics try to get to Istanbul so that they could openly practice their true faith. This has everything you might expect from a picture like this - intrigues, love, treachery, friendship, honor, faith - a bit of everything and mixed together to achieve the desired effect. (03/24/2005)