#kleber-mendonca-filho

#kleber-mendonca-filho

Unusually for a political period drama that is not in the English language, runs nearly three hours and peppers its authentic portrayal of a military dictatorship with sight gags and gory shootouts, The Secret Agent has transpired to be quite the awards magnet. Best picture and best actor, for its star Wagner Moura (who recently won a Golden Globe), are two of the four categories in which it will compete at next month's Oscars.

A casual disregard for human life contrasts with a colorful, hard-partyin' atmosphere of 1977 Carnaval in Brazil in The Secret Agent, director Kleber Mendonca Filho's momentous epic, a mercurial adventure in filmmaking that reminds us of how dangerous but important it can be to resist an unjust system. Secret Agent also urges us to be aware of the swath of corruption that settles in places high and low and to respect and embrace the bloodlines that flow through us.

When the Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho was writing his latest movie, in 2021, he felt shame about the situation in his homeland as it took a sharp turn to the right under then president Jair Bolsonaro. Well-informed friends would pat you on the back and say: I feel for you, the film-maker recalls. Four years later, as the film hits big screens, Bolsonaro is out of the picture and Mendonca's mood has changed.