Real and fictional sharks have a starring role in reputed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent. A dead shark with a human leg in its tummy points to the mysterious ways in which people are dying in military-ruled Brazil. Elsewhere in the city of Recife, the big attraction in the local cinema is Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
The Secret Agent examines the surreal and very real ways in which the Brazilian dictatorship is oppressing its subjects. The Oscar-nominated movie’s most recognisable actor is Narcos star Wagner Moura, unendingly watchable as a dissident professor trying to evade his enemies.
The Portuguese-language film is out in cinemas with English subtitles. The Secret Agent is set in 1977, somewhere in the middle of the authoritarian rule that lasted between 1964 and 1985.
The abnormal-is-normal tone is established in the nerve-wracking scene in which Armando (Moura) is accosted by police officers who are more bothered with his identification papers than a rotting corpse attracting flies and dogs a few metres away.
Lives are cheap but talk is expensive in these “very mischievous times” – Armando is cautious to a fault, keeping his eyes peeled for spies and informers. His refuge in Recife is a commune for other dissidents like him, which is run by the adorable Dona Sebastiana (Tania Maria). Despite his efforts, Armando learns that an old adversary is gunning for him, and has sent assassins his way.
Kleber Mendonca Filho’s chronicle of rebellion and tyranny is suffused with sexy music, sexier people and normalised violence. Amidst richly saturated colours dominated by blaring yellows, people scarred by tragedy retain a fighting spirit, unwilling to let their tormentors win.
The 156-minute film is very taken by itself, resulting in leisurely pacing and exposition that isn’t always engaging. The visual style and charismatic characters are hooks to reel viewers into the murkiness of dictatorships. Despite clunky plotting in places, The Secret Agent gives a sense of how unelected governments, supported by corrupt elites, carry out their dirty deeds.
The luxuriant period detailing brings alive the offices, barbershops and cinemas of the 1970s. Even a phone booth – the site of tense calls and possible capture – is an attractive prop. There are eccentric touches, such as a two-faced cat.
Bursts of carnage punctuate the narrative, emanating from rulers who are immune from prosecution. The lingering sense of danger results in watchfulness, which Wagner Moura brings out with suavity and tremendous control. His co-actors are striking too, especially the riotous elderly actor Tania Maria.
In some ways, The Secret Agent is a companion piece to Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliant epic One Battle After Another, which is a frontrunner for the Oscars. Both films comment on the importance of maintaining continuity with the past. The movies also excavate a throbbing political underground that finds ways to love and forgive even as it resists persecution.
While One Battle After Another speaks to the chaotic present, The Secret Agent reveals a world that prepared the groundwork for our brutal and unjust times. In Filho’s universe, sharks are everywhere in a country that is devouring its own.
