The Secret Agent
Set during the two-decade Brazilian military dictatorship, Wagner Moura stars as a former professor in hiding who returns to his home town to reconnect with his son (Enzo Nunes) and father-in-law (Carlos Francisco) and get the help of the local resistance to eventually flee the country. Filmed in location in both Recife and São Paulo, cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova used vintage cameras and equipment to help recreate the look of the 1970s in which the story unfolds.
Writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho's film is certainly well-made, although I'll admit to enjoying the second-half of the film more than than the first which purposefully meanders, feeling a bit lost (not unlike its antagonist). Things come into focus when Armando (Moura) sits down to tell his story (shown in flashbacks) which are recorded and then found by a history student (Laura Lufési) years later. It's after this interview that the tension of the movie also picks up with the hitmen sent to find Armando arriving in town setting up a ticking clock to see whether or not he can escape before he is found.
Other aspects of the plot involve a corrupt local chief of police (Robério Diógenes) and his equally degenerate sons who takes a friendly interest in our protagonist despite Armando attempting to keep his head down. There's also a somewhat bizarre ongoing subplot about a human leg (both a real one which needs to be discarded and a local story about a zombie leg about town).
Although fictional, Filho's film feels quite real and lived-in (well, aside from the zombie leg). We can see such events such as these unfolding in this time and place and quickly identify the corruption and danger of an authoritarian regime which Armando is fleeing which seems more than cautionary given world events. Moura is terrific, and I think the last hour of the film is amazing if you have the patience to sit through the slow build (which could have gone a tad quicker for my taste).
- Title: The Secret Agent
- IMDb: link
