Cannes’ Best Director award

A complex dramatization of tragic history comes to vivid life in Brazilian writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (“O Agente Secreto). Set in 1977 Brazil, academic leftist and technology expert Marcelo retreats to his home town of Recife, hoping to elude violent retaliation in the military dictatorship rampant with corruption and indifferent to human life. Using a pseudonym in an attempt at concealment, Marcelo opposed a government minister ready to exploit and monetize scientific researchers’ discoveries while also disbanding the university department. For his ethical stand, Marcelo earns candidacy for targeted elimination.