“The Secret Agent,” playing at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center starting Dec. 26, is a haunting Brazilian neo-noir political thriller written and directed by Mendonça Filho. Although a 2025 film, it has the look and feel of the mid-1970s, which is, in fact, when the narrative is set. The story follows a former technology researcher and university professor, Armando (Wagner Moura), as he tries to escape persecution and resist the corrupt authoritarian regime during the political tumult of the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship.
Filho establishes a sense of unease from the very beginning. Armando pulls up to a rundown gas station in what appears to be the middle of nowhere. Not far from the pump, a dead body lies on the dry ground, covered only by a sheet of newspaper. When Armando asks the attendant about it, he explains that the robber was killed some time ago, but the police, busy with Carnival festivities, refuse to come until Ash Wednesday, leaving the body to rot in the sun. Shortly after, the police do actually arrive. However, they come not for the body but to interrogate Armando, eventually intimidating him into a “donation to the police fund” before letting him go.
We realize that Armando is truly in trouble, though, only when, upon arriving in the coastal city of Recife, he seeks safe shelter with the delightfully eccentric Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), who houses him along with other political refugees. We get to know each of them over the course of the film, as well as the many additional characters involved in the swirling subplots. Over time, the different storylines become clear, along with their connections to one another.
One strand, for example, is Armando’s relationship with his young son, Fernando (Enzo Nunes); Armando comes to reconnect with him despite being in hiding. Fernando has been living with his grandparents since his mother, Armando’s wife, died several years earlier. The appealing young boy is obsessed with “Jaws,” drawing the shark from the poster over and over, even though his grandfather won’t let him watch the new blockbuster because the poster itself gives Fernando nightmares.
Bizarrely, with a bit of a Federico Fellini flair, the shark nightmare appears in a related subplot: During an autopsy, a tiger shark is found to have eaten a hairy human leg. For obscure reasons, the arrogant and corrupt chief of police and his sons eventually carry the leg off, although it disconcertingly reappears as a leitmotif during the film. And it turns out that over time, Armando’s life and the chief’s will become intertwined.
Throughout, there is the ongoing threat to Armando’s life from a powerful man with a personal and political vendetta against him, one that traces back to Armando’s career. Filho knits the plot together with scenes of verging-on-chaos Carnival revelry, which thicken the air with a sense that Armando’s life is about to spin out of control at any moment.
“The Secret Agent” premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it received a 13-minute standing ovation. It was the festival’s most awarded film, with Moura becoming the first Brazilian to win Best Actor and Filho the second Brazilian filmmaker to earn Best Director. The film is also nominated for the Golden Globes’ Best Director and Best Picture categories. Filho will appear via Zoom for a Q&A after one of the screenings on opening weekend (TBD).
“The Secret Agent” begins at the M.V. Film Center on Dec. 26. For tickets and information, visit https://mvfilmsociety.com/2025/10/the-secret-agent/.
