Credit: Netflix

Adaptation enthusiasts of Netflix, huddle up, because we have got another one! And this time, it has come over from Denmark but seems well settled into Netflix’s Top 10 movie chart this week.

And do you know what’s fascinating? The Secret Woman is not even an English-language film, but audiences outside Scandinavia have taken one look at the subtitles and welcomed them with open arms. Because, come on, give people a missing person with a suspicious family, and all of a sudden they stop caring about the language.

The film came on Netflix in late August, coming from SF Studios Denmark, with Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg directing a screenplay she wrote with Anders August. Wait a second, those names sound familiar, don’t they? You might recognise Rothenborg from Loving Adults, which is another Danish thriller she directed, and it found viewers across the world on Netflix. So, basically, they know the Netflix drill inside out.

Yes, yes, we know you are getting eager about the book it’s based on, but umm, it gets a little strange here. The Secret Woman is based on the Danish novel ‘Den hemmelige kvinde’, written by Anna Ekberg. Except… Anna Ekberg does not exist. Well, not as one person, anyway!

Hold on… What? It turns out the name is a pseudonym used by writers Anders Rønnow Klarlund and Jacob Weinreich, and on a side note, Klarlund stayed involved with the film as an executive producer.

Another fascinating part about The Secret Woman is its placement in Netflix’s catalogue. The platform puts it in psychological thriller and Nordic-noir territory, while critics have decided to place it in gothic melodrama as well. And once you hear the premise, you get it: we are dealing with dodgy memories here along with a suspicious family. Of course money’s involved too, Lovely! Nothing concerning there whatsoever.

So, meet Louise Andersen. She lives with her partner Joachim on the Norwegian island of Hidra, and there is one tiny problem: she cannot remember anything about her life before him. Then some stranger turns up and tells her Louise Andersen may not even exist.

According to him, she is Helene Söderberg, a Danish woman who vanished years ago and left behind a husband and a child. Shocking? More like earth-shattering.

So Louise goes back to Denmark and starts looking into this life that everyone else seems to remember better than she does. But the problem is, who on earth do you trust when your own memory cannot back you up? The husband saying he knows you? The partner whose life you remember? Yourself? Ha, good luck solving that puzzle.

Natalie Madueño plays Louise, and Claes Bang plays Edmund, the man claiming to be her husband, while Pål Sverre Hagen plays Joachim, the partner from the life she knows.

And, really, is it any surprise The Secret Woman has travelled beyond Denmark? Try wondering yourself: what will you do when everyone around you knows who you are… and you don’t?

Mystery lovers, this one has your name written all over it.