The Secret Agent
In 1970s Brazil, there are sharks in the water – in more ways than one. On a beach in Recife, one of these ocean predators washes ashore with a human leg inside it. A young boy obsessively recreates the poster image of Jaws, trying to master his nightmares by immersing himself in all things shark-related. Meanwhile, the child’s father, who has taken on the name Marcelo (Wagner Moura), deals with sharks of a more figurative kind, as he discovers there is a hit out on him.
Director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, Pictures of Ghosts) returns to Cannes’s competition for the third time with an almost three-hour fever dream of an espionage film. If The Secret Agent sets out to be a white-knuckle political thriller, its convoluted narrative and languid pacing work against that intention. One must learn to settle into the spaces Filho has constructed before being rewarded with fragments of the larger picture.
The visuals are laden with evocative ideas – a cat with two faces, or the surreal materialisation of a severed leg taking on a life of its own. However, there is an unpleasant digital sleekness that peeks through the carefully crafted anamorphic, high-contrast images, which strive to emulate the grubby signature look of the period.
Inarguably, the feature’s standout is Wagner Moura’s elusive performance, commanding the audience’s attention as they attempt to decode the characters and their motives. Amid all the mystery, it becomes clear just how concrete Moura’s conception of Marcelo is – only when he later assumes a different role does the depth of his original portrayal fully reveal itself.
As long as one doesn’t approach the film expecting anything adrenaline-fuelled, The Secret Agent (O agente secreto) offers valuable insights into Brazil’s military history and the ways oppressive systems shape the daily lives of ordinary people.
Selina Sondermann
The Secret Agent does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.
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