Asghar Farhadimakes movies unlike anyone else’s. To think about his films is like going to a place in the mind. The physical locations change from film to film — Tehran, Paris, and now, with “Everybody Knows,” Spain — but the mental space remains similar: a place of turmoil and suppressed passions and torments, but with the suggestion of some overarching order, some Olympian view that makes sense of it all.

Farhadi’s is a world of secrets, some of them small and seemingly unimportant. A woman(Penelope Cruz)returns home to Spain to attend her sister’s wedding. She sees her father and tells him how well he looks, but a minute later, she tells her sister, “Papa really got old.”

In another scene, a man (Javier Bardem) is driving down a road and has to swerve to avoid two reckless teenagers on a motorcycle. Minutes later, he meets the young woman who was driving the motorcycle, recognizes her, but declines to say a word about the near accident to her mother. He remembers what it was like to be young and has no interest in getting anyone into trouble.

So even inFarhadi’s introduction of his characters, we see that secrets can define character. In the case of Paco (Bardem), we recognize a forgiving, life-loving man, who cares about people and assumes the best. He has the appearance of someone strong and capable, which he is. But he is also trusting and naive, which makes him susceptible to those who would prey on his good nature.

As is often the case with Farhadi’s films, “Everybody Knows” progresses as though nothing special were happening, and yet it’s all very interesting, anyway. Farhadi introduces lots of characters — relatives and acquaintances of Laura (Cruz) — and sometimes it isn’t easy to keep track of the various relationships, and of who lives in Spain and who is visiting from Argentina. In the beginning, for example, we might easily assume that Paco is an uncle. In fact, he’s the son of a woman who worked as a servant for Laura’s family, back when the family was wealthy. Now Paco is relatively prosperous, a landowner and vintner.

A crisis, best left a mystery, kicks in at the wedding, and the rest of the movie is about coping with what seems to be a matter of life and death. But while another filmmaker would make that crisis the center of his focus, Farhadi is after something else. He is interested in what this pressure will reveal and what it will shake loose from the past.

“Everybody Knows” was shot digitally, and by now digital has its own aesthetic — crisp and beautiful, a look without romance, but with clarity, like a palatable version of the truth. It’s a look in philosophical harmony with Farhadi’s intense but humane gaze. And the actors are superb, particularly Bardem, whose scale and exuberance call to mind Anthony Quinn, but a Quinn who isn’t pretending — a Quinn who really means it.

M“Everybody Knows”:Drama. Starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. Directed by Asghar Farhadi. In Spanish with English subtitles.Theaters and Showtimes