The Secret Agent
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“If I leave, I lose my job; if I stay, it's this stench”
Overview
The visionary director of Bacurau returns with Cannes-sweeping thriller The Secret Agent. Brazil in 1977 is a dangerous place and university professor Marcelo (Wagner Moura) is on the run, pursued by agents of the military dictatorship. He finds sanctuary in his hometown of Recife, where his late wife's father and a tight-knit group of leftist resistance helps Marcelo and his young son Fernando (Enzo Nunes) arrange the fake IDs they'll need to start a new life. Amidst the raucous celebration of Carnival week, they anxiously await the precious passports as the hitmen on their trail circle ever closer.
“Superb in every way”
“A masterfully paced delight...one of the year's best movies”
“A masterpiece...the best film of the year”
“Rich, evocative, crafty and exciting”
Winner of Best Actor, Best Director and the International Critic’s Prize
Why See This Film
A masterful balance of knife-edge tension with cathartic absurdism, The Secret Agent is a chronicle of a very dark time in Brazil's history with direct links to the present day. Filho visited his hometown of Recife in the 2023 documentary Pictures of Ghosts, returning here to further explore the ties of memory and fantasy. Running parallel to the portrait of a country torn by suspicion and paranoia is another of Filho's great passions: the grand picture houses of old, and the way cinema can blend with folklore and the real to create a coherent narrative out of chaos.
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