The Secret Agent(2025)
dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Hiding in plain sight, under a watching state.
Where to watch: Streaming on HuluLetterboxd ↗
Brazil, 1977. A technology expert on the run from the military dictatorship arrives in Recife during Carnival week hoping to reunite with his son, only to find himself tangled in surveillance, bureaucratic corruption, and a small underground resistance cell.
Why it’s here
Punk in refusing a tidy thriller resolution — Marcelo's flight from the dictatorship tangles with carnival, paperwork, and a small resistance cell, none of it clean or heroic. Pedagogical in showing how authoritarian control operates through neighbors and bureaucracy as much as through outright violence.
Where This Film Lives
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
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1984
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A Small Place
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Safety without cages, built by feminists.
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Assata
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Black Panther. Political prisoner. Escaped to Cuba. Her own words.
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