The Secret Agent capitalizes on the rise of Brazilian cinema as it heads to the Oscars

SAO PAULO — The Oscar-shortlisted The Secret Agent centers on Armando, an unassuming scientist and widowed father who becomes a target of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s not for activism, but for standing up to a business owner with ties to the regime. The film arrives at a moment when Brazilian cinema is drawing renewed international attention, buoyed by critical acclaim for director Kleber Mendonça Filho and star Wagner Moura. Moura described the premise as revealing how authoritarian systems work: “He’s in danger simply for being who he is, for holding the values he holds. That’s how authoritarianism works everywhere.” The Secret Agent has been hailed by critics as one of the year’s best films and expands in U.S. theaters this week, following a season in which it earned major recognition on the festival circuit and at the Golden Globes, with nominations for best drama, best non-English language film, and best actor in a drama. The film’s U.S. release comes as Brazil enjoys a broader surge of international interest in its cinema, building on the momentum created by recent successes.

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent has already earned prominent honors at the Cannes Film Festival, including best director for Mendonça Filho and best actor for Moura. The film’s awards run helped position it for Oscar consideration as a representative of Brazil’s evolving film industry, which has increasingly emphasized intimate storytelling about ordinary people navigating extraordinary circumstances. Mendonça Filho has emphasized that the film’s appeal rests in its specificity—the 1977 setting, the Recife locale, and the intimate drama of a man trying to protect his family—while underscoring a universal resonance about dignity under pressure. “If it’s good, it will be universal,” he has said, arguing that the film speaks to audiences beyond Brazil’s borders even as it stays rooted in a particular time and place. Moura, for his part, has highlighted the film’s human core, describing Armando as someone who embodies the quiet courage that can resist a powerful regime without resorting to overt political theater. The film’s international push has also come at a time when Brazilian cinema has been revisiting the dictatorship era with a new urgency, reflecting broader social and political tensions at home and abroad.

Set in 1977, at the height of Brazil’s dictatorship, The Secret Agent opens with a black-and-white montage that traces national symbols—from movie classics to hit soap operas—before anchoring the narrative in Carnival-season Recife, Mendonça Filho’s hometown in northeastern Brazil. The filmmaker situates Armando’s quiet life against a landscape of public pomp and private fear, a choice that underscores the tension between Brazil’s festive national identity and the regime’s repression. Carnival scenes provide both color and chaos, with the police chief appearing in a state of disarray after a night of revelry, illustrating how the era’s spectacle and surveillance collided in everyday life. Mendonça Filho has explained that he wanted to ground the drama in a precise historical moment while allowing the characters’ experiences to illuminate broader themes, including corruption, state violence, and the complicity that can permeate institutions. He has also drawn a connection between cinema and memory, noting that Brazilian audiences have long found solace and insight in film even as the country grappled with its past. The director’s insistence on a locally specific story aimed at universal human concerns reflects a broader strategy by Brazilian filmmakers to foreground personal narratives within larger political histories.

The plot follows Armando as he lives undercover, using the alias Marcelo while he pores over archives about his mother’s past and decides whether to flee the country with his young son. As Armando builds a quiet revolution through information and resolve, the streets outside brim with Carnival energy, a reminder that Brazilian life persists even when the state tries to crush dissent. In one pivotal sequence, Mendonça Filho pays homage to his cinephilic roots with a scene set inside a movie theater, where audiences reacting to screenings of Jaws and The Omen become mirrors of a country living under threat. The moment signals how cinema can reflect, and even shield, a society under strain, while also pointing to the power of storytelling to illuminate moral choices under pressure. The film’s tension also speaks to a broader trend in Brazilian cinema: the past decade has seen a steady return to the dictatorship era as a lens for contemporary concerns, from political polarization to questions about memory and accountability.

The Secret Agent sits among a wave of Brazilian works that have revisited the dictatorship period, a project that has gained urgency as the country’s political winds have shifted. Moura has noted that the wave reflects an ongoing national reckoning with a history that some leaders once sought to minimize or forget. Mendonça Filho has described the military as a trauma that was never fully examined, arguing that a country cannot simply “move on” from the violence and repression of that era. As Brazil’s political landscape has evolved—marked by the arrest and imprisonment of a former president for attempting to overturn the 2022 election, and the imprisonment of high-ranking officers for their roles in the attempted coup—the film’s release has taken on additional resonance. The director says the current moment gives audiences cause for cautious optimism about democracy and accountability, while Moura emphasizes that the public’s engagement with Brazilian artists matters for a country’s cultural vitality and self-understanding.

Tânia Maria, 78, delivers one of The Secret Agent’s most striking performances as Dona Sebastiana, a Brazilian artisan who shelters fugitives and becomes a focal point in Armando’s fragile world. Mendonça Filho wrote the role for Maria after he remembered her from his 2019 film Bacurau, where she appeared as a memorable extra. The director described her as a conduit of authenticity—a “birdlike bearing” and a voice shaped by decades of life and cigarettes—whose presence gives the film a distinctive texture. Moura has spoken about the power of her performance in their first scene together, noting that Dona Sebastiana’s matter-of-fact strength communicates something essential about survival under a regime that would target ordinary people for their beliefs and values. Maria has said that filming The Secret Agent felt like stepping into a life she has lived, and she has embraced the public attention she has received since the movie’s Brazilian release, where audiences have connected with her character’s humanity and resilience. She has even spoken about hoping for Oscar recognition for both the film and herself, illustrating how the project has become a touchstone for many of the people involved and for Brazilian audiences who see their own experiences reflected on screen.

The film’s cultural significance extends beyond its immediate awards attention. It arrives at a moment when Brazilian cinema’s international profile is rising, in part due to a broader revival of national storytelling that centers intimate human drama over broad political exposition. Critics have praised The Secret Agent for its precise time-and-place construction and its capacity to illuminate a difficult period through a human-scale narrative. Moura has said that the film provides a way to talk about Brazil’s past without reducing it to a single narrative, emphasizing instead the complexity of people who lived through the dictatorship and the small acts of courage that can alter a life and a country. In this light, The Secret Agent is more than a movie; it is part of a cultural project to understand and articulate Brazilian memory, identity, and resilience through cinema.

As Brazil continues to navigate its political future, directors like Mendonça Filho and actors like Moura, along with veteran performers such as Maria, are helping to shape a cinematic conversation about history, memory, and accountability. The film’s U.S. expansion follows widespread critical praise in Brazil and abroad, along with a string of awards that have raised its profile with international audiences and Academy voters. The Secret Agent’s trajectory reflects a broader pattern in global cinema: when national cinemas reclaim their past with honesty and artistry, they often gain new relevance and resonance well beyond their borders. In the end, the film’s success will likely be measured not only by its Oscar prospects but also by its ability to contribute to a ongoing conversation about Brazil’s history, its culture, and its future.