The Secret Agent and the Year in Movies About Resistance

The Secret Agent and the Year in Movies About Resistance

Kleber Mendoça Filho’s incredible new film ‘The Secret Agent’ joins ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘It Was Just An Accident,’ and ‘My Undesirable Friends’ in contemplating what it means to be part of a resistance.

“The Secret Agent” Is a Political Thriller Teeming with Life

The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho conjures fateful interconnections among vivid characters living in the grip of military dictatorship.

The Secret Agent Review: A Rousing, Unsettling Thriller from Kleber Mendonça Filho

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2025 Cannes coverage. The Secret Agent opens in theaters on November 26. When Armando (Wagner Moura) finally resolves to seek a fake passport and one-way ticket out of Brazil for himself and his young son, he asks his father-in-law to suggest a spot where he could meet a fixer. The old man recommends a room inside his place of work: a cinema. This choice (a movie theatre standing as the …

A Time of Mischief: Kleber Mendonça Filho’s THE SECRET AGENT Emerges as One of the Best Films of 2025

A title card in the opening seconds of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent welcomes the audience into a setting steeped somewhere between fact-and-falsehoods: 1977 Brazil, during the country’s military’s dictatorship. “A time of mischief,” as described by the title card, when we see the film’s protagonist, Marcelo (Wagner Moura), driving into an isolated gas […]