The Secret Agent

"Brazil 1977, a time of great mischief."

2025 2h 41m PT

👍

7.2

SOLID

🔥

98%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 906🍅98%Rotten Tomatoes●91Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 51,421

ThrillerDramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

“Brazil 1977, a time of great mischief.”

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Cast

Wagner Moura
Marcelo Alves / Armando Solimões / Fernando Solimões
Alice Carvalho
Fátima
Gabriel Leone
Bobbi
Isabél Zuaa
Tereza Victória
Maria Fernanda Cândido
Elza
Udo Kier
Hans
Robson Andrade
Clóvis
Rubens Santos
Natalício

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Writers: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Languages: German, English, Portuguese
Countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 161 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, English, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 5 countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, shot by Evgenia Alexandrova. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mateus Alves. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Eduardo Serrano shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kleber Mendonça Filho directs. Evgenia Alexandrova behind the camera. Mateus Alves scores. Eduardo Serrano cuts. A long sit — settle in. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina. Dialogue in German, English, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 161 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Made its money back 3.8× over at the box office.
3Released last year.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, English, Portuguese.
5International production across 5 countries: Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina.
6Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, shot by Evgenia Alexandrova. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Mateus Alves. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Eduardo Serrano shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Wagner Moura and Alice Carvalho and Gabriel Leone carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Brazil 1977, a time of great mischief.".
11IMDB entry: tt27847051 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 10 themes, including "police", "professor", "1970s", "secret agent".
13Released under 19 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Evgenia Alexandrova
Original score: Mateus Alves
Editing: Eduardo Serrano
Production design: Thales Junqueira
Makeup / hair: Marisa Amenta
Sound: Tijn Hazen
Runtime: 161 min · 2h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,000,000
Box office: $18,988,224
Return: 380% of budget
Original language: PT
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Secret Agent (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes: 98% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 91/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 51,421 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 4 Oscars. 91 wins & 162 nominations total

APRECI Award for Best International Premiere
FIPRESCI Prize of the Festival de Cannes
Golden Globe Award for Best Non-English Language Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Kleber Mendonça Filho

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2025-10-19
★ 4/10
The key to making a successful political thriller is to maintain a taught sense of mesmerizing, edge-of-the-seat intrigue. Unfortunately, that’s precisely the element that’s missing in this overlong, annoyingly convoluted tale set in 1977 Brazil during the waning days of its military dictatorship. The story follows the life of Armando (Wagner Moura), a former university researcher targeted for manipulation and framing by a corrupt, influential businessman (Luciano Chirolli) when the educator refuses to play ball with him. This, in turn, leads to a death threat against Armando, who must do whatever it takes to try and clear his name and stay alive. In the process, however, Armando gets caught up in a web of deceit, criminality and personal peril involving a shady police chief and his dubious associates, a pair of ruthless hitmen, a group of Brazilian and Angolan political dissidents in hiding, and a Holocaust survivor mistakenly believed to be a Nazi refugee. From this, it would appear that the film has a premise filled with potential to make for an engaging yarn, but, regrettably, it fails under the weight of its many shortcomings, most notably an overextended narrative that excessively delves into the details of government research funding and sociopolitical clashes involving regional Brazilian cultural and political differences, material that’s often tedious and not especially engaging. To complicate matters, director Kleber Mendonça Filho has compiled a mishmash of filming and storytelling styles that frequently impairs the picture’s flow and style, including a wealth of easily excised incidental material that tries viewer patience the further one gets into the story. This is clearly a case of a filmmaker in need of reining himself in, knowing when to kill his darlings, and unsuccessfully maintaining a level of suspense that, sadly, largely evaporates about an hour into the picture. In addition, this offering incorporates a present-day story thread involving a history student (Laura Lufési) assigned to transcribe surveillance tape recordings of Armando made at the height of his ordeal, a task that inexplicably captivates her, prompting her to learn more about the fate of her subject. It’s a needless subplot that evokes a huge “so what?” quality and could have readily been eliminated without damaging the picture in the slightest. I’m truly mystified how this bloated release ended up being the most honored candidate at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, capturing four awards, including best actor and director, as well as a Palme d’Or nomination, the event’s highest honor. This is a genre with so many other better offerings that one would be wise to watch in place of this disappointing effort.
Chandler Danier2026-02-09
★ 8/10
This film looks great. Brazil is such a cool place. I want to go live in this time...but as a rich white guy visiting who doesn't have to deal with the apparent horrors. Perhaps we could do a The Secret Agent 2 starring me. I'd probably have to duck while using the phone booth. I crouch well. Fun story. Interesting characters. Great! I bet this will get a Hollywood redux in a few years.
CinemaSerf2026-03-06
★ 7/10
First things first: if you’re expecting something from “U.N.C.L.E.” via Ian Fleming then you are probably going to be disappointed. This isn’t that kind of drama. Instead, it follows three characters portrayed by Wagner Moura who have to navigate a series of political intrigues that begin in 1970s Brazil. Academic “Marcelo” (aka “Armando”) has arrived in his home city of Recife under some sort of cloak of secrecy; is being shielded by the wily “Dona Sebastiana” (a scene-stealing Tânia Maria) and some other citizens more inclined to freedom and is soon searching the local files for information regarding his late mother. As the plot evolves, we discover that he was formerly a university scientist whose career was kiboshed by a corrupt industrialist quite happy to steal ideas amidst a state where the rights of the individual were clearly second to a state run by a phalanx of corrupt police officers, or meagrely paid hitmen. Right from the start we are presented with symbolism of that, of extortion and bribery and of a society where the Cruzeiro is king and that theme prevails through what is essentially a three act play. The object of this isn’t always clear, and just when I thought I was making some headway it veered off on tangents. There is a sub-plot regarding his new, fleeing, house-mates; another more focussed on his son and cinema-owning father-in-law and there are also frequent interventions from two women who are transcribing tape recordings of conversations either featuring or about one of Moura’s characters. Who are these latter women? Well that ambiguity survives the film and it didn’t help keep the focus taught as the pace takes quite a dip towards the closing (second) phase of his escapades. There are aspects of the quite subliminally menacing throughout this critique on a society largely afraid of it’s own government, or certainly of doing anything about it, and although the ending of the film and the ending of the principal thrust of the plot don’t happen at quite the same time, there are no signs of any happy endings as the plotting and counter-plotting are given a distinctly human face. Though it is probably half an hour too long, it does merit a second watch as I found it made more sense once I’d established the initial ground rules and characterisations and could concentrate more on a quite cleverly woven and internecine story.