Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/ France/ Germany/ Netherlands, 2025, 158 mins, in Portuguese with subtitles
Cast: Wagner Moura, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone
Review by Colin Dibben
It is also a cracking sultry tale of resistance to often flamboyant political corruption.
Marcelo (Moura) is an industrial researcher on the run from a powerful businessman. He returns to his hometown of Recife and finds sanctuary in a small community of refugees run by an idiosyncratic older woman.
Marcelo takes a job in a local government archive while trying to arrange safe passage out of the country for him and his young son. But Brazil has become a violent place, especially for those who oppose the government and its powerful supporters.
It’s a great turn from Moura, who won the best actor prize at this year’s Cannes film festival. He exudes a kind of calm fatalism that is totally beguiling.
Elsewhere, the film energetically zips off into the different perspectives of minor characters, such as the hitmen tasked with taking out Marcelo and a journalism student in the 2020s who tracks down Marcelo’s grown-up son.
All the acting is good, with even minor characters given screen time and dialogue to show their qualities. Even though the film exudes the kind of steamy languour that facilitates luxuriating in slow reveals of character, there are some superb action sequences, as well as intriguing story jumps.
The Secret Agent is out in cinemas on 20 February 2026.
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