The Secret Agent

AroView: An Oscar-nominated political thriller set in 1977 about a former professor caught in the turmoil during the Brazilian military dictatorship who attempts to flee persecution and resist an authoritarian regime.

Written and directed by the idiosyncratic and fiercely intelligent Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius), and carried by a superb performance by the charismatic Wagner Moura, it’s a film that recreates a disturbing, paranoid era in Brazilian history with cinematic verve and fire in its belly, covering adjacent ground to last year’s international Oscar winner, “I’m Still Here”, a film also deeply contemptuous of the then military dictatorship.

But this fiction is somehow more elusive and better for it, working up a satisfying slow simmer over two-and-a-half-hours but holding the grip of intrigue for us, the audience, and also the contemporary students who frame the story by way of access to an archive of cassette tapes.

“It’s a major achievement, and for my money, sure to be one of the best films of the year.” ~David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“Visually and dramatically superb in every way, moves with unhurried confidence across the screen, pausing to savour every bizarre bit of comedy or erotic byway, or note of pathos, on its circuitous path to the violent finale.” ~Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian