The Secret Agent

From gifted Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho comes a thrillingly unpredictable, emotionally rich epic about people swept up in forces beyond their control. Set in Mendonça’s hometown of Recife during the late 1970s, The Secret Agent follows a technology expert (Wagner Moura) whose life is upended by the greed of a government bureaucrat.

On the run during the country’s military dictatorship, he tries to escape while reconnecting with the young son he once had to leave behind. The film’s deft subplots and affectionate tributes to the pleasures of cinema—and to the Brazil of Mendonça’s youth—add beauty and humanity to this portrait of one man holding onto his individuality under an abusive regime.

Winner of Best Director and Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. In Portuguese with English subtitles. 

“A sweat-saturated riot of a movie: a witty, wildly enjoyable thriller powered by the kind of anarchic energy that you would expect to find at the end of a two-day bender.”—Wendy Ide, Screen International