Actress Noomi Rapace has opened up about the time when she had to spend a few months in Romania prior to filming The Secrets We Keep.

Noomi had shot to fame playing Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and its sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. She is back to exploring the black side of the human psyche with The Secrets We Keep.

The upcoming thriller sees her play Maja, a deeply troubled Romani Holocaust survivor. The Yuval Adler directorial tells the story of a woman seeking vengeance for heinous war crimes she believes her new neighbour has committed.

Before shooting for the film, Rapace spent six months in Romania.

"I was able to gain a sense of the culture and the soul of the people. They are very proud and very fiery and I was able to tap into that part of myself. Yuval and I had many creative sessions that helped build the character and, just as importantly, defined her dilemma," Rapace said.

Talking about her role, the actress said: "It is set in a more innocent time, when women were meant to be delightful and sexy and feminine. And Maja is those things, but she is also a woman who kidnaps a man twice her size, which automatically makes her an outlier."

She also complimented her director, who contributed in adding layers and perspective to her character. "We talked a lot about whether revenge can ever be the best answer. Can we heal that way or do we need to move away from it? Maja has become a wife and mother, living thousands of miles away from what happened. But when she sees this man, she starts to give up on the happiness she's achieved and her desperate internal battle comes from that."

Also starring Joel Kinnaman, The Secrets We Keep is set to release in Indian theatres on December 18.