Oscars 2026: The Secret Agent Review - Cinema against historical erasure

The Secret Agent (Portuguese title: O Agente Secreto) is a Brazilian political drama directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, known for Bacurau and Aquarius, and starring Wagner Moura. It tells the story of a professor and technology expert who becomes a fugitive under surveillance in 1977 Recife at the height of the military dictatorship.

The film has become a true phenomenon both in Brazil and abroad with a breathtaking trajectory. The partnership between Kleber Mendonça Filho and Wagner Moura has marked a milestone in Brazilian cinema. Its impact began at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where the feature secured Best Director and Best Actor awards. It gained even more momentum with its victory at the 2026 Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Non-English Language and Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

This global acclaim earned it four historic nominations for the 2026 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best International Feature Film, and Best Ensemble Cast. In Brazil, the work not only won over critics, winning the APCA award for Best Film of 2025, but also drew massive crowds by surpassing the 1 million viewer mark in theaters.

The film features a vast and nationally renowned cast including Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone, Carlos Francisco, Hermila Guedes, Alice Carvalho, Udo Kier, Isabél Zuaa, Robério Diógenes, Tânia Maria, and Laura Lufési.

Synopsis

Set in 1977 Recife under the oppressive shadow of the military dictatorship, the film follows Marcelo's journey. A technology specialist, he flees São Paulo and returns to his hometown seeking desperate refuge against accusations of subversive activities.

However, the peace he seeks quickly unravels. Marcelo is swallowed by a growing atmosphere of paranoia and political conspiracy. He soon discovers he is under intense surveillance by his own neighbors and is inevitably dragged into the heart of a dangerous spy network.

Official Trailer

While immersed in a rigorously real historical and social setting, the film is a work of fiction. Marcelo's journey, marked by escalating paranoia, is not based on a specific individual or a documented espionage case. Instead, it represents the collective sentiment of many during the dictatorship era in Brazil.

Kleber Mendonça Filho defines the work as a "political fable," preferring to create a thought-provoking atmosphere rather than being didactic. It is a way of using cinema to debate social control without feeling like a history textbook.

The 1977 setting is marked by the peak of authoritarian control in Brazil during the Military Dictatorship, which began with the coup on March 31, 1964, and lasted until 1985. Although the film does not use the word "dictatorship" constantly, it dives deep into the climate of censorship and political persecution that defined daily life at the time.

This repression is personified in the protagonist, Marcelo, whose paranoia reflects the real fear of a population closely watched by agencies like the National Information Service (SNI). Through wiretapping, citizen monitoring, and the creation of extensive secret files, the narrative exposes how espionage and widespread distrust were the primary tools for maintaining state power during the 21-year military regime.

The production uses elements of folklore and everyday life to denounce how the military regime promoted historical erasure and the destruction of identities. Through scenes involving archives and an enigmatic ending, the work suggests that many facts and people were deliberately "erased" from official history.

A striking example of this is the use of the Hairy Leg (Perna Cabeluda), a famous urban legend from Recife at the time. It ceases to be just a myth and becomes a metaphor for the repressive state itself. It is a faceless, anonymous, and terrifying force that hunts citizens without ever identifying itself.

The film recalls how the press of that period often used these fantastic tales to distract the population from the real political violence occurring in the dictatorship's basements. This brutality is reinforced by images of an ignored body at a station or an unidentified leg found in a shark. These symbolize the cruel indifference with which the disappearances and deaths of opponents were publicly handled by the government, turning human tragedies into nameless files or forgotten facts.

The film has been acclaimed by international and national critics with an extremely positive reception at major festivals.

Rotten Tomatoes: 98% approval from 164 critic reviews and 84% approval from over 250 audience reviews.

IMDb: 7.6/10 from 17,000 reviews.

Letterboxd: 3.9/5 stars from 281,000 reviews.

The Secret Agent is one of those experiences that left me thinking for a long time after the credits rolled. Kleber Mendonça Filho uses suspense with elements of a dark detective film to explore the terror of authoritarianism in a way that feels visceral rather than just educational. The director builds Marcelo's paranoia so gradually that you feel the fear grow along with him.

The film shines by turning the context of the dictatorship into a constant source of invisible tension. By reviving the myth of the Hairy Leg, the script creates the perfect symbolism for the oppressive State as something that appears from nowhere, attacks without explanation, and personifies the panic of a watched society. This is politics transformed into pure magical realism.

Wagner Moura delivers one of the most visceral performances of his life precisely because it is not obvious. Instead of the explosive energy we know him for, he constructs Marcelo through silence and fragility. You look at him and see the paranoia written in his bodily exhaustion and his gaze. It is a precision that genuinely tightens the chest.

He does not need to shout to show that the character is destroyed inside. The strength of his performance lies in this vulnerability that overflows in every detail without needing any noise.

The supporting cast is the soul of the "who's who" atmosphere in the film. Maria Fernanda Cândido and Gabriel Leone bring a mystery that keeps the audience on edge, and Tânia Maria, as Dona Sebastiana, is a true discovery. It is impossible not to be moved by her journey from an extra in Bacurau to this pillar of humanity in this film, shining at over 70 years old.

She steals the scene with such spontaneous naturalness that you want to sit down and have coffee with her. Dona Sebastiana is the heart of the story. She brings the human warmth and welcoming nature that we so desperately need to breathe amidst this heavy climate of oppression. With immediate charisma, she has deservedly become one of the production's biggest highlights.

The Secret Agent is a 10/10 film and, in my view, is already a classic. It is much more than a portrait of the past. It is a reflection that hits hard today on how surveillance and paranoia can grind down anyone's psyche. It is Brazilian cinema in a state of grace: powerful, visually impeccable, and emotionally devastating.

The great achievement here is that the dictatorship does not just appear in history books. It becomes a living character on screen through fear. Kleber Mendonça Filho swapped obvious violence for the psychological terror of uncertainty, focusing on that agonizing feeling that you can no longer trust anyone.

Is it worth watching? Absolutely. If you enjoy cinema that respects you as a viewer, that prefers tense silence to empty noise, and that makes you leave the theater with your mind racing, this film is mandatory. It is a dense experience, the kind you keep "watching" mentally for days after leaving the theater.

Until next time!