The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)
Screening: 10 September 2026
Film details
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Cast: Wagner Moura, Tânia Maria, Alice Carvalho, Robério Diogenes, Udo Kier
Country: Brasil
Language: Portuguese (English subtitles)
Rating: 15
Running time: 161 minutes
Film summary
The film transports the audience to the oppressive atmosphere of 1970s Brazil. Marcelo, a university researcher, finds himself a marked man after refusing to allow corrupt officials to steal his department‘s research to enrich themselves. Fleeing to his hometown, he seeks refuge among political dissidents and an underground resistance network while trying to arrange an escape with his young son.
Watch the trailer
Reviews
“A kaleidoscopic riot that quickly becomes a gear-shifting masterpiece. For all its showmanship, exquisite period details and flashy Tarantino-style denouement, Filho’s film never loses its profound emotional ache.”
— Kevin Maher, The Times
“The Brazilian Director’s stellar filmmaking and sharp storytelling makes this portrait of life under dictatorship as politically incisive as it is entertaining.”
— Giovanni Marchini Camia, Sight and Sound
Major awards
Winner – Best Director and Best Actor, Cannes Film Festival 2025
Winner – Best Foreign Language Film, Critics Choice Awards 2026
Winner – Best Motion Picture Non- English Language, Golden Globes 2026