There is no espionage story in ‘O agente secreto‘ (‘The Secret Agent‘) by Brazilian director
Kleber Mendonça Filho, nor is there any connection to the novel written by James Conrad more than a century ago, which inspired many other films and television series. It is one of those films that is difficult to fit into a single cinematic style, which can belong to several genres or for which a special category should be invented. The film borrows its title from a scene in which the main character passes through a cinema hall in which the credits of a film (imaginary, with Belmondo!) of that name are being projected. ‘O agente secreto‘ is also full of references to cinema around 1977 and in particular to Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster ‘Jaws’ – and a screening room is the setting for several key scenes. This complex and interesting movie does not belong to the genre of films about films either. It combines political realism with Latin American fantastic to depict the struggle for survival of people living in a corrupt and violent society, in the midst of a period of dictatorship that lasted many decades and dominated the history of Brazil in the second half of the 20th century.
The film starts as a road movie in the semi-desert landscape of northern Brazil, an arid country strewn with corpses and dominated by fear, to evolve into an atypical political thriller with a slow movie pace. The main hero is called Marcello or maybe Armando, as he sometimes hides his real identity. He flees from the authorities and the hired killers sent on his trail, waiting for the false passports that will allow him and his little boy to leave the country. The city of Recife where he arrives is a place of refuge and perhaps of transit to freedom or, in any case, to a world where his life is not in danger. A corner of a country dominated by political terror and endemic corruption. The reasons for his behavior will be gradually discovered by the viewers who will also get to know those around him: his deceased wife’s parents, his neighbors – most of whom are fugitives like him -, the gullible politicians, the corrupt policemen and the hired killers, a kind of Tarantino-style heroes transported to Brazilian soil. Flashbacks will gradually complete the story of the film’s hero’s life, and the events that rush towards the end will only be clarified and put into context by an epilogue that takes place in our days.
I also really liked the way the screenwriter and director Kleber Mendonça Filho built the narrative and how he brought it to the screen, transforming the cinematic spectacle into a violent realistic image of Brazil in the eighth decade of the last century. Mixed in are also elements of fantasy, as present in many novels and films of Latin America, which are packaged in this case with elements of Hollywood cinematic mythology. Spielberg and (again) Tarantino seem to have met in an episode of men under a history of dictatorship, fear and repression. I appreciated the remarkable gallery of portraits created by the filmmaker and exceptionally interpreted by a collection of formidable selected and guided actors. I will mention only two names: that of Wagner Moura who has already collected well-deserved awards for the lead role in the film and the German actor Udo Kier, in his last appearance on the screens in a heartbreaking supporting role. The full list should be very long. In my opinion, in this year with serious competition, ‘O agente secreto‘ should collect several Academy Awards, and not just the one for Best Film in a Foreign Language.