The Secret Agent

Kleber Mendonça Filho navigates Brazil’s painful past to paint a loving portrayal of a place and its people, in this slow burning and hugely entertaining political thriller. It’s Carnival week, 1977, in dictatorship-ruled Brazil. Marcelo, a widower on the run arrives in Recife, hoping to reunite with his young son and flee the country. He finds refuge in a resistance commune run by a charismatic 70-year-old woman, but chaos soon catches up with him. Corrupt forces from his previous life are on his tail and he faces further duplicity in the city – his escape trickier with each turn. Combining political statement with light-hearted sentiment, Bacurau and Aquarius writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s novelistic feature revels in playful genre-bending detours – including a gleefully deranged B-movie inspired sequence – and soulful emotions to deliver a sweaty, sun-drenched and masterfully acted ride that is always grounded in love: for Brazil and for cinema.

Diana Cipriano, Programme & Research Coordinator

Contains scenes of graphic violence.

Audio Description available at all screenings. The screening on Sun 15 Mar 15:10 NFT4 will be presented with Descriptive Subtitles.

Closed Captions available via WatchWord smart glasses – please see our Closed Captions page for a list of screenings.

See a screening of The Secret Agent under relaxed conditions with Descriptive subtitles (standard ticket price) Tuesday 24 February 17:30 NFT4.