Kleber Mendonça Filho Returns with O Agente Secreto

Acclaimed filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho makes his comeback to narrative cinema with O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent), unveiled in the Official Selection at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

After exploring cinematic memory in his recent documentary Retratos Fantasmas (Pictures of Ghosts), Kleber now ventures into political thriller territory, diving deep into repression, surveillance, and resistance.

Set in 1970s Brazil, under a ruthless military dictatorship, the film follows Marcelo (played by Wagner Moura) who escapes São Paulo to seek refuge in his hometown of Recife. But even Carnival’s festivities can’t shield him — he’s being watched, everywhere.

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s signature blend of social realism, genre cinema, and political urgency is on full display. He states that his goal was to “explore how individuals operate within an oppressive system, how they resist or submit.” The director shot on location in Recife and São Paulo during spring 2024, striving to recreate the stifling ambience of a dictatorship — where “walls had ears and every move could be suspicious.”

Recife, a long-time muse and setting for Kleber’s films, becomes more than a backdrop. Its architecture, collective memories, and atmospheric tension are woven into the narrative, arguably making the city itself a character.

With O Agente Secreto, Kleber Mendonça Filho asserts once again his bold voice in cinema — unafraid to confront the past, dissect power structures, and challenge viewers to reckon with history’s shadows.