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The Film

         A Film by Verne Varona

Three Can Keep A Secret, If Two Are Dead is a compelling and adventurously crafted fictional story based on true events that span five centuries, three countries, and sacred Andean Inca sites. Hauntingly told, it is a story of love and loss, magic and reality, and the personal drama of sacrifice and faith. Framed on the theme of past and future lives, acts of sacrifice and deeds of redemption, the story is a penetrating tale about the power of secrets and the invisible world of energy that surrounds and permeates everyday human life. 

When a 500-year old female mummy (“Angela”)—14-years old at death—is found frozen on a remote 20,000 ft. Andes mountain summit in the mid-1990’s, scientists were astonished to find frozen blood in her heart chambers, plentiful DNA and eggs still housed in her ovaries. Based on the immediate freezing that occurred at 20,000 feet elevation, scientists theorized that her 500-year old ovarian eggs could still be fertilized and a baby brought to term, if they were transplanted into a surrogate.

Privileged to this information, three lab workers, Else,' Emilio and Rio, make a secret pact to create a child from these eggs using Else' as a surrogate, with a contribution from a local Shaman distantly related to the same tribe as Angela. They agree on exposing this remarkable birth by the child’s sixth month. Mid-way through her pregnancy, Else' discovers she has developed supernatural abilities, such telekinesis and the telepathic ability to read the thoughts of others.

When the child is born, she is named, Serena. It soon becomes apparent that as Else's supernatural abilities fade by post-birth, they begin to show up in Serena as she ages. When Rio and Emilio realize that Serena is past the sixth month mark, they impatiently demand her birth be revealed to the scientific world and general public. Else', now attached to motherhood and protective of the child she always wanted, goes into hiding, relocating in a neighboring country where she begins a new life. Eventually discovered by Rio and Emilio, she secretly returns to Peru where they are hidden in a remote Inca mountain community. After a while, Else' realizes Serena’s place is with her people and returns to her an Incan mountain community. Else' then returns to her native, Miami. Ten years later, by a twist of agonizing fate, mother and daughter meet again under circumstances that cause the daughter to make a choice between life and death. 


Photo Credits: Stephen Alverez & Johan Reinhard