The Secret Agent (2025) (Portuguese Language)- BFI London Film Festival 2025

Review

158min

Genre:       Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Director:    Kleber Mendonça Filho

Cast:         Wagner Moura, Robério Diógenes, Maria Fernanda Cândido…

Writers:     Kleber Mendonça Filho

-Synopsis-

In Brazil under military rule in the late 1970s a former scientific researcher turned agitator with a difficult recent past is on the run, returning to his home town in Pernambuco state during Carnaval season to tie up loose ends and try to secure his future whilst seeking refuge, only to find that home may not provide the peace and security he seeks when the past catches up and puts him in the crosshairs of a corrupt and bureaucratic system.

Having built a reputation in recent years as one of the most celebrated Brazilian filmmakers of this generation with rhythmic, vibrant and nuanced human dramas which reflect the beautiful but frustrating contradiction that is Brazil and its unequal and often chaotic society, with films like ‘Neighbouring Sounds’ and ‘Aquarius’, not to mention a memorably savage and satirical foray into genre filmmaking with his last feature ‘Bacurau’, writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho returns to his oft-visited home of Recife on the coast of Northeastern Brazil and takes a trip down memory lane to paint a compelling character drama portrait of identity in Brazil under military dictatorship, and a gripping but measured political crime thriller indictment of the country’s brand of corruption and bureaucracy.

Wagner Moura stars as former scientist and academic ‘Marcelo’, on his way back to his hometown of Refice after going on the run from a shady past getting reluctantly entangled with a crooked system, and poking the corrupt corporate bear by standing up for his family, as he takes refuge in a little community for exiles built by the charming old ‘Dona Sebastiana’ (Tânia Maria), while re-connecting with his father-in-law ‘Seu Alexandre’ (Carlos Francisco) and remaining family and getting closure for his past before he can find safety with his young son. But his nourishing homecoming takes a risky and chaotic turn when corrupt local authorities like police chief ‘Euclides’ (Robério Diógenes) become involved, and downright dangerous when hired assassins ‘Augusto’ (Roney Villela) and ‘Bobbi’ (Gabriel Leone) are sent to settle a score—as he turns to a political resistance network run by ‘Elza’ (Maria Fernanda Cândido) for a way out before his real identity is revealed to the wrong people.

As he did with all his previous films, Mendonça Filho infuses ‘The Secret Agent’ with the type of cultural energy and Latin character which has defined Brazilian cinema over the last couple of decades, driven by bracing music which combines a vibrant score by his regular collaborators Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza with a bumping soundtrack of classic and lesser-known largely 1970s folk, pop, and disco funk from Brazil and beyond to pulsating and hip-swinging effect. And the film looks every inch the part too, painted by a colourful aesthetic with a period-appropriate sepia palette which combines beautifully with sterling set dressing and production designs—not to mention a little subtle CGI—all to impressively and faithfully re-create 1970s Brazil and in particular Recife.

There’s no doubt that the film has style credentials and lightly brushes up against genre film tendencies with its subtle surrealist and comedy elements, plus a pinch of gore and graphic violence which takes its time to make an appearance but makes an impact when it does, and there’s no denying its chops as a moderately tense crime thriller too. But at its core ‘The Secret Agent’ is very much a nuanced character piece and a cinematic socio-political exploration of Brazil’s relatively recent history, and while it’s a fictional story Mendonça Filho was inspired by not only his memories of growing up during Brazil’s military dictatorship era but also by real historical records and urban myths surrounding them, and fuelled by his own political leanings.

Clearly Mendonça Filho’s compelling and polemic period piece—which takes place largely in the 1970s but strategically circles back to the present day—is meant to be an indictment of the “Fifth Brazilian Republic”, established by a US-supported military coup in 1964 and enduring until 1985 with tight and often oppressive control of the country’s government and socio-economic systems, defined by the cultural corruption and bureaucracy which remains to this day and endures under governments of every description and ideological slant. And whilst the film may not be a particularly subtle or nuanced critique of a complex part of Brazilian history, it doesn’t pretend to be either, instead filtering it all through a very human lens and focusing on the everyday citizens most affected, reflecting the government-led anti-communist fervour of the time which often spilled over into persecution of academics and students, sometimes even with scholars who were not true radical leftists but just opponents of the ruling establishment.

Yet as a character drama at heart ‘The Secret Agent’ relies heavily on the efforts of its cast, who all deliver in spades, masterfully led by one of Brazil’s biggest screen stars and among its most respected cinematic exports Wagner Moura, who cuts a slightly solemn and haunted yet stoic and determined figure as a family man academic turned cool and crafty operator by circumstance. He’s meanwhile supported by a solid cast of Brazilian stars putting in admirable shifts ranging from veterans like Robério Diógenes playing an image of authoritative arrogance and corruption as the crooked lead cop, to lesser known talents the most memorable of which is relative newcomer and the film’s senior citizen Tânia Maria, playing the droll and delightful matriarch of a leftist community who gives refuge to those fallen foul of the country’s ruling classes, injecting more than her fair share of heart and humanity into the piece.

‘The Secret Agent’ may not be the most gripping or tense crime thriller, nor is it the most comprehensive or insightful political drama either, but Mendonça Filho’s hot and sweaty Carnaval season spectacle holds its own as a an engrossing and often saucy slow-burn thriller with plenty of humour but also some sexiness and darkness thrown in the mix, and excels as a charming and reflective period character piece reflection of a Brazil of yesteryear, whilst also a stylish ode to cinema and tribute to a bygone era with painful echoes in the present.

The Bottom Line…

An engrossing political period piece character drama study of resistance and indignation with plenty of heart, not to mention style and rhythm, plus a dark edge too, ‘The Secret Agent’ proves to be a simultaneously reverential yet critical reflection of a national cultural identity that defies the ages and is as beautiful and alluring as it is exasperating and intractable. As Kleber Mendonça Filho’s packs his dissident dramedy thriller with Brazilian flavour and cinematic zest of the Recife variety, underlining his growing reputation as one of the most exciting Latin American filmmakers working today.

‘The Secret Agent’ is out on the 26th of November in the US, and on the 20th of February 2026 in UK cinemas.

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