The Secret Agent injects surrealism into a political thriller

Historical fiction as a genre provides filmmakers with endless opportunity to be creative. Despite their malleability, our first thought is probably a story about fictional characters in a historically accurate time and place, still feeling very real aside from names and occupations. However, as it is still a work of fiction not necessarily beholden to realism, filmmakers can sprinkle in some absurd visuals, sequences, or behavior. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho chooses this less common path of historical fiction with his Oscar-nominated film The Secret Agent, which at times feels very real and others like a complete fever dream.

The setting in question is 1977 Brazil, politically torn by a brutal ongoing military dictatorship. Seeking refuge is Marcelo (Wagner Moura), a professor/researcher who has mercenary hitmen hired by a businessman on his trail. Before he can escape, he must receive his documentation and get ahold of his son. In the meantime, he takes cover during Carnival in his hometown of Recife, where others are seeking asylum. To establish the tone of the film, Filho opens with an extended scene of Marcelo pulling into an empty gas station on a dirt road off a desolate highway. He immediately spots a covered-up, rotting corpse not 50 feet away, which the gas station attendant does not seem bothered by at all. He calmly tells Marcelo that the corpse was a thief that was shot while trying to get away, and that the police have told him they won’t be by for a few days. In the middle of a spooked Marcelo getting gas, two cops pull in, completely ignore the body, and simply grill Marcelo while inspecting his car. After he bribes them with cigarettes, they head off. The disconcerting scene prepares the audience for the surreal film that is to come.

The Secret Agent does not answer every lingering question to cut straight to the cat-and-mouse game, as many thrillers do. It leaves you wondering exactly why these men are after Marcelo, how much danger he is in, and how close they are to finding him. Instead, the audience watches Marcelo do his best to keep a low profile while offering information to comrades trying to help him. While he doesn’t appear to be in imminent danger, the sociopolitical climate suggests that he could never be too safe at any moment. Flashbacks hint at his activism and willingness to confront powerful figures, but the mystery remains a mystery with various subplots throughout.

The sum of The Secret Agent’s various threads paint the picture of a society in political turmoil, one where the regard for human life has been minimized. Marcelo being on the run from a businessman who he is not even meddling with serves as a microcosm for this condition. One subplot involving a human leg pulled from the mouth of a great white shark produces the most surreal scene in the movie, in which the leg comes to life and hops through a park attacking people. Such a scene would normally be absent from a political thriller, but Filho includes scenes like this to sidestep the possibility of preachy and on-the-nose rhetoric. Other scenes include some of Marcelo’s nightmares where he is haunted by memories such as seeing the corpse in the movie’s opening. Such sequences show how even what has become normal on a macro scale still affects the individuals living amid this chaos on a psychological level. 

Later in the movie, the henchmen chasing Marcelo seek the help of a food service worker to get close enough to perform the deed. Their logic is that he will surely jump at the opportunity for very little money. It furthers the film’s deeper themes, as many citizens are so poor that the notion of a contract killing piques their interest. Though it is obvious that the man in question has some experience in the field, the mercenaries encounter him as an honest, law-abiding citizen, yet still easily convince him to partake in their mission. 

Some may find The Secret Agent far too vague and abstract to be satisfying as a period piece mystery/thriller. As moviegoers, we are accustomed to the rule of thumb that such mysteries must tie up all loose ends by the conclusion. However, the story’s attachment to politics makes its approach fitting, as often such issues do not get resolved so easily. It is less about Marcelo’s fate individually than about a broken system and widespread corruption that will continue regardless of his life or death. Marcelo, after all, is not some revolutionary figure that would often be the subject of such a story, just a man seeking refuge. Unlike the 2002 hit City of God, which displayed gritty realism, The Secret Agent portrays some of the same socio-political issues in a more abstract manner.