Oscar contender ‘The Secret Agent' capitalizes on the rise of Brazilian cinema

SAO PAULO — ''The Secret Agent,'' a Brazilian feature shortlisted for the Oscars, is all about ordinary people. It follows an unassuming scientist and widowed father who becomes a target of Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1970s — not because he is an activist or revolutionary, but because he stands up to a business owner with ties to the regime.

''He's in danger simply for being who he is, for holding the values he holds,'' star Wagner Moura told The Associated Press in a recent interview. ''That's how authoritarianism works everywhere.''

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, ''The Secret Agent'' has been hailed by critics as one of the year's best films and arrives amid a renewed international interest in Brazilian cinema. Expanding in U.S. theaters Friday, the film is backed by major wins at the Cannes Film Festival for both Mendonça Filho (best director) and Moura (best actor).

Earlier this month, the 2 1/2-hour thriller earned Golden Globe nominations for best drama, best non-English film and best actor in a drama.

Of identity and memory

''The Secret Agent'' arrives at a strong moment for Brazilian cinema following the success of ''I'm Still Here,'' which won this year's Oscar for best international feature and a Golden Globe for lead actor Fernanda Torres.

In Brazil, expectations for ''The Secret Agent'' are high. Moura said the widespread enthusiasm around the film — and the public's engagement with Brazilian artists — has made him ''incredibly happy.''

Set in 1977, at the height of Brazil's dictatorship, ''The Secret Agent'' opens with a black-and-white montage of the era's national symbols, from movie classics to hit soap operas.

Mendonça Filho anchors the story in a precise time and place: Carnival in Recife, the filmmaker's hometown in northeastern Brazil. As the center of his cinematic universe, the city is the set for confronting a country that still struggles to reckon with its past.

''We've all consumed incredible things from so many places — from Akira Kurosawa in Japan to Elvis Presley in the American South,'' Mendonça Filho said. ''I am Brazilian, and my film is Brazilian. If it's good, it will be universal.''

History unfolds in real time

Living undercover and under the alias Marcelo, Armando spends his days scouring archives for clues about his mother's past and planning to flee the country with his young son. As his quiet quest unfolds, the streets outside explode with Carnival revelry — a festival so embedded in Brazilian life that even the police chief appears rumpled from the celebrations, confetti still clinging to his hair.

One pivotal sequence unfolds inside a movie theater, a nod to the director's lifelong cinephilia. As fictional audiences spill out of screenings of ''Jaws'' and ''The Omen,'' shaken by fictional threats, the country itself is living under real terror.

Over the past decade, Brazilian cinema has increasingly revisited the military dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 to 1985. Alongside ''The Secret Agent'' and ''I'm Still Here,'' filmmakers have returned to the period in works such as ''Marighella,'' directed by Moura, about the legendary guerrilla leader who took up arms against the regime.

Many of these films were made or released in the past decade, amid the rise of Brazil's far right. Its most prominent figure was former President Jair Bolsonaro, a retired army captain who praised officers accused of torture and minimized state crimes committed during the dictatorship.

Mendonça Filho is among the filmmakers who have taken on the task of confronting national memory.

''The military is a trauma that was never truly examined,'' he said. ''You can't just say, ‘Move on, forget it.' A crust forms over it. The same thing happens to an entire nation.''

That same month, Bolsonaro was arrested and began serving a 27-year prison sentence for attempting to overturn the 2022 election after losing to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. For the first time, high-ranking military officers were also imprisoned for their role in the attempted coup.

''Today, I'm much more optimistic about Brazil as a democracy,'' Mendonça Filho said. ''For the first time, we're holding military officers accountable — and sending to prison a president who did nothing but harm the country.''

An extraordinary ordinary woman

Few stories in ''The Secret Agent'' are as striking as that of Tânia Maria, 78, who plays Dona Sebastiana.

A Brazilian artisan, Maria lived an ordinary life until age 72, when she was cast as an extra in Mendonça Filho's 2019 film ''Bacurau.'' Since then, she has appeared in six films that have yet to be released.

The character, who shelters political fugitives including Armando, stands out. When she walks toward the camera in a flowered dress, cigarette in hand, the film briefly belongs to her.

''Her authenticity carries something of many women I've known,'' Mendonça Filho said. ''There's something literary about her.''

Moura said he wasn't able to hide his awe at the actor's authenticity. He pointed to their first scene together, in which Dona Sebastiana shows Armando the apartment he is moving into.

If viewers watch closely, he said, they will see that he is genuinely ''like a fool orbiting around her.''

Maria lives in a rural village of about 22,000 people in northeastern Rio Grande do Norte. There is no movie theater there. She says the only films she has ever seen are the ones she acted in.

''Filming is wonderful, and Kleber Mendonça's films feel like they're copying our lives,'' she said, laughing. ''Dona Sebastiana's life is my life. I've always liked taking people in, and I've always liked complaining.''

Since the film's release in Brazil, the seamstress-turned-actor has become a national sensation, appearing on morning shows and gaining thousands of followers.

She is also hoping for Oscar recognition — for the film and, perhaps, for herself.

''I want to go to the Oscars,'' she said. ''And I want to make my own dress. It will be red, very sparkly.''

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