Brazilian filmmakers clearly are drawn to unsettling dramas set during the 21-year military dictatorship that ousted the democratically elected president in 1964, both as a means of addressing their country’s recent past, and as an uncomfortable parallel to current events … particularly in the United States.
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| Armando (Wagner Moura, center, smiling) finds a safe and comfortable haven in a group home, among fellow refugees. |
Indeed, Mendonça Filho admits to having emulated the style of directors such as Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
This cleverly crafted narrative unfolds in tantalizing, teasing dollops. It’s a grimly melancholy study of how ordinary people become complicit in an ongoing atmosphere of corruption, by gradually accepting it as business as usual.
The year is 1977; we meet Armando Solimões (a note-perfect Wagner Moura) as he travels during the sweltering carnival holiday, driving a Volkswagen Beetle (which were ubiquitous in Brazil, during that decade). A stop for gas exposes both the jaw-dropping disregard of a recent violent encounter, and the casual corruption of a passing police officer who subjects Armando to an unnecessary “interview.”
He handles that quasi-interrogation with cool, mildly amused detachment, aware that this is a routine “game” that must be played. But, as we soon learn, Armando’s sang froid is a carefully crafted pose, because he’s a man on the run. He’s heading to the northeastern Atlantic Coast city of Recife, where his in-laws have been caring for his young son, Fernando (Enzo Nunes).
Armando’s wife, Fátima, is out of the picture. We don’t find out why, or how, for awhile.
He has been directed to a “safe house” run by Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), a venerable former anarcho-communist who has given similar refuge to a gaggle of other political dissidents.
Maria is terrific in this role, giving Dona Sebastiana an adorable blend of feisty resilience, shrewd character judgement and sharp-eyed intelligence; this woman has seen it all, and survives to tell countless tales. Maria definitely should have garnered a Supporting Actress Oscar nod; she’s leagues above at least two of the actresses who did make the cut.
Having adopted the name Marcelo, Armando is placed into a job at the city’s identity card office, where — when not otherwise occupied — he hopes to find physical proof of his late mother’s existence, in order to have something by which to remember her. Euclides (Robério Diógenes), the oafish and arrogant Civil Police Chief in the neighboring office, takes a shine to “Marcelo,” and offers friendship and “protection.”
This is a mixed blessing; Armando is repulsed by the way Euclides humiliates nearby shop tailor Hans (Udo Kier, in his final film role). Euclides nonetheless professes to admire Hans, believing him to be a Nazi fugitive … and little realizing — as Hans explains to Armando, in German — that he’s actually a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
Elsewhere, former Eletrobras executive director Henrique Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli) hires two terrifying, stone-cold assassins — Augusto (Roney Villela) and Bobbi (Gabriel Leone) — to kill Marcelo, as revenge for … something.
The clock is ticking.
In his temporary home, Armando begins an affair with fellow refugee Claudia (Hermila Guedes); he also spends as much time as possible with Fernando, which his father-in-law Sr. Alexandre (Carlos Francisco) regards with mixed feelings. He and his wife clearly adore their grandson.
An earlier sidebar issue, involving the discovery of a severed human leg inside a captured tiger shark, prompts a series of lurid local newspaper articles that readers improbably lap up as fact. (Mendonça Filho lifted this jaw-dropping incident from actual articles that appeared in Recife’s daily Diário de Pernambuco newspaper.)
Such fabricated nonsense is merely one of many ways to distract the public, from the fact that journalists are unable to cover political and police corruption and violence.
Mendonça Filho cross-cuts between Armando’s activities, and the search efforts by Augusto and Bobbi; the developing tension becomes edge-of-the-seat worrisome.
Armando then meets Elza (Maria Fernanda Cândido), leader of the political resistance movement that placed him under Dona Sebastiana’s watchful care. Elza requests the details of what placed him on the run, and records his recitation on cassette tapes.
Shortly into this narrative, the scene abruptly shifts to another time and place, as two young women — Flávia (Laura Lufési) and Daniela (Isadora Ruppert) — listen to those same tapes. Who do they work for? Is Elza actually betraying Armando, rather than helping him?
Moura delivers a heartbreaking, subtly measured performance as Armando, who does his best to remain upbeat and cheerful. But he’s also cautious and wary, and — even during his happiest moments, with Fernando — traces of grief are visible at the corners of his smile. His silent, into-the-distance gaze is haunted.
The numerous “deplorables” are equally well played, from the cop who confronts Armando as the film begins, to Igor de Araújo and Italo Martins, as Euclides’s two sons, Sergio and Arlindo. They’re also cops, a role enjoyed for their ability to be unpleasant — or worse — to anybody unlucky enough to annoy them.
Despite this sense of danger, production designer Thales Junqueira, costume designer Rita Azevedo and cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova collaboratively showcase the rich, colorful nature of Brazil’s atmosphere, culture and music. A warm, nurturing degree of solidarity also is shared among Dona Sebastiana’s residents: notably Claudia, Haroldo (João Vitor Silva) and Angolan Civil War refugees Thereza Vitória (Isabél Zuaa) and Antonio (Licínio Januário).
Mendonça Filho uncorks several surprises during his story’s conclusion: an epilogue of sorts, which features a cheeky bit of stunt casting.
The Secret Agent is solidly accomplished filmmaking, and its impact will linger long after it concludes.
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