![‘The Secret Agent’ Review: Wagner Moura Commands Stunning Brazilian Crime Drama Steeped in History and a Palpable Adoration for Cinema [Cannes]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/16122916/O-AGENTE-SECRETO-Kleber-MENDONCA-FILHO-Photos-3-Films-kit.jpg "‘The Secret Agent’ Review: Wagner Moura Commands Stunning Brazilian Crime Drama Steeped in History and a Palpable Adoration for Cinema [Cannes]")
Kleber Mendonça Filho, one of Brazil’s most distinctive filmmakers (“Aquarius,” “Bacurau”), has returned with a political thriller that’s already drawing global attention. His new film, “The Secret Agent,” has dropped its first teaser trailer.
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Starring Wagner Moura—known internationally from “Narcos” and Alex Garland’s “Civil War”—the film premiered at Cannes earlier this year, winning the coveted Best Actor for Moura and Best Director for Mendonça. It is scheduled to open in select theaters on November 26.
Set in 1977 Brazil, “The Secret Agent” follows Marcelo (Moura), a technology expert on the run who arrives in Recife during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son. Instead, he finds the city is far from the refuge he imagined. The cast also features Maria Fernanda Cândido (“The Traitor”) and Gabriel Leone (“Dom”).
In The Playlist’s Cannes review, Carlos Aguilar calls the film “an imposing masterpiece steeped in history and a palpable adoration for cinema,” adding that it stands as “the director’s most ambitiously monumental effort in a career with no missteps thus far.”
With Cannes recognition for both its lead and director, and early critical acclaim, “The Secret Agent” is shaping up to be one of the year’s major international releases and presumably headed for serious Best International Film contention at the Oscars. “The Secret Agent” unveils itself in November. Watch the trailer below.
