In her new monthly column for CrimeReads, author and historian Radha Vatsal makes the case for why you should be watching new movies and shows from around the world and across the decades.
Cast: Let’s start with Walter Moura, whom you may be more familiar with in his role as the drug lord Pablo Escobar in Narcos. Here, the Brazilian actor plays the lead in what’s been described as a “neo-noir historical political thriller” set in Brazil in 1977—when the country was still under a military dictatorship.
I love political thrillers and am fascinated by the dictator subgenre (For instance, Mario Vargas Llosa’s brilliant novel, Feast of the Goat). In The Secret Agent, you don’t see the men who run Brazil. Instead, the movie focuses on Marcelo (Moura), a widowed scientist who’s on the run, but who wants to pick up his young son so they can flee the country together. The son lives with his grandparents; his grandfather works as a projectionist in the local cinema and the boy is desperate for permission to watch Jaws, but his grandparents say no because even the poster for the film terrifies him.
Marcelo is the locus around which an eclectic cast of characters revolves. This includes bored bureaucrats, corrupt cops, a duo of hired hitmen, and Sebastiana (played by scene-stealer Tânia Maria, 78, apparently a seamstress hired by chance for the role). Sebastiana has a voice like sandpaper and a deadpan sense of humor. She runs a safe house for those affected by the regime.
Story/Mood: The movie doesn’t over-explain. It simply shows the absurdity and random cruelty and brutality of life under the dictatorship. The reasons behind what happens aren’t always crystal clear—but that seems to be the point. When you’re living under a cruel and arbitrary regime, when rules have been tossed out the window, things don’t have to make sense. That’s what makes it so chilling.
There’s also a surreal and humorous subplot about a severed hairy leg that goes about the town frightening locals. And the 70s vibes—the clothes, shoes, and Marcelo’s yellow VW Beetle—feel spot on.
A sub-plot of researchers investigating Marcelo’s case powerfully connects the past to the present. As director Kleber Mendonça Filho says: “it’s so much more powerful to realize that what we live in the present … will be seen as just characters in the past…”
Crew: I loved Mendonça’s 2019 futuristic western thriller, Bacurau, about a small village that is mysteriously wiped off Google maps—and that’s when bad things start to happen. The Secret Agent is more grounded in reality but just as unpredictable.
Memorable moment: In the opening scene, a dead body lies under cardboard at a gas station. The gas attendant tells Marcelo that it’s been lying there for several days, stinking and attracting flies, because the police have been too busy to come get it.
Where to watch: As of this writing The Secret Agent is still in select theaters and beginning to play more widely. It’s definitely worth watching on the big screen, if you can. If it’s not at a theater near you, then no doubt, it will stream soon.
Other notes: The film wowed at Cannes winning Best Actor, Best Director, and the FIPRESCI Prize. Shortlisted for Shortlisted for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Runtime: a solid 2 hours and 40 minutes.
