Some very fine films are up for best picture at this year's upcoming Academy Awards, with Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler's Sinners the two currently looking most likely to emerge as winner of the category. But The Secret Agent might just be the pick of the bunch.
Narcos and Civil War star Wagner Moura, who has himself been nominated for best actor at the Oscars, takes on the lead role in the film. And although he was only one-year old at the time of its 1977 setting, he didn't need too much preparation when it came to learning about the period in question.
"But most of all I think that the logic of the dictatorship is still very present in Brazil. It's not like the dictatorship ended in 1985 and that was it. The echoes of the dictatorship are still very present. From 2018 to 2022 we had a far right president, [Jair] Bolsonaro – who by the way is in jail right now for attempting against democracy in Brazil.
In fact, it was resistance to the Bolsanoro regime that had led Moura and Mendonça Filho to collaborate on this film.
"I thought it was one of the greatest Brazilian films I had ever seen, and I expressed my desire to work with him," he said. "And it was mutual."
View Green Video on the source website"What really brought us together in this project was politics," he explained. "What it was to be in Brazil under a wannabe dictator, what it was when Brazil took this sharp turn to the right with the President that openly praised the dictatorship, praised the torturers, the killers, and people that worked for the dictatorship.
"So I think that what put us together, actually, to do The Secret Agent, was our shared perplexity over what was going on in the country, during that time.”
Of course, the Bolsanaro era might now be at an end – since 2023 the Brazilian government has been led by the left-wing politician Lula – but one of the main themes of The Secret Agent is the importance of addressing history, of exploring the collective trauma suffered by the country's people during dark times. And according to Moura, this speaks to one of the great powers of film in general.
"It's a film about the importance of collective memory, or how an entire generation can be traumatised and how that impacts the soul of the country. So, I think that films are important in that sense. I don't believe that we have to make films for that, but it's good they end up having this function."
Because the information she has at her disposal is incomplete, so is our picture of the character, something which communicates the fact that many records of dissidents at the time are now tragically lost. But although the audience are told a fragmented story, Moura was keen to fill in the gaps of his character's backstory as much as he could for his own benefit as an actor.
"Until, like, an hour-and-a-half into the film, you don't really know what's going on, it's like putting the pieces of the puzzle together and understanding parts of what that character is. And I really like that. I really like that he doesn't provide answers."
One thing that the film does do is provide some interesting context for the film's setting – the northeastern city of Recife. The action regularly diverts from the main plot line to provide all sorts of tangents focusing on the local community and the people Armando comes into contact with, at one point even indulging in a fantasy sequence exploring a local legend known as the hairy leg.
"The Secret Agent wouldn't exist if he hadn't directed that film," Moura said. "Which is his interest in Recife, in the archeology of the centre of Recife. The old movie theater, São Luiz, is kind of a character in this film as well as the city and the legends like the hairy leg.
Towards the end of our conversation we come back round to the subject of Brazilian cinema more generally, and specifically the recent boost it's received when it comes to international recognition at major awards ceremonies.
"It's a good moment for Brazilian cinema, for sure," he said. "Since we got rid of the fascist government that is in jail right now, we now have – again – a president and a government that likes culture. Because our production is still very dependent on government funds – so it's not by chance that we are living in a good moment."
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