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The Secret Agent

O Agente Secreto

Kleber Mendonça Filho | 2025 | 161 MINS
Brazil | Subtitles
★★★★★ Guardian

Best Actor and Director awards at Cannes 2025. Brazil 1977: a technology expert flees from a mysterious past and returns to his hometown of Recife in search of peace. He soon realizes that the city is far from being the refuge he seeks.

In Detail

Best Foreign Film Golden Globe

Widower Marcelo (Wagner Moura from ‘Narcos’) is travelling across Brazil to his son. In his previous life as an academic, he discovered information that implicates a government minister of corruption, and this minister needs Marcelo gone, so hires a couple of hitmen to find him.

Marcelo is welcomed into a covert community of refugees, all in hiding from the dictatorship for one reason or another. It’s a family of sorts, presided over by 77-year-old den mother Dona Sebastiana (a wonderful Tania Maria who steals every scene she is in).

The film’s visual brilliance, dark comedy treats, sensual big-city intrigue, ghastly lowlife walk-ons and perfectly paced storytelling combine to create something very special. Watch out for the nods to classic films such as ‘Jaws’, ‘The Omen’ and even Jean-Paul Belmondo in ‘Le Magnifique’, from where the film’s title is sourced.

With support of the BFI Film Audience Network,
awarding funds from the National Lottery in order to
bring this project to more audiences across the UK.

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