The year is 1977. Brazil is in the midst of a military dictatorship that began with a US-backed coup in 1964 and lasted for 21 years. It is, as a title card at the film’s outset informs us, “Uma época cheia de pirraça”—a period of great mischief. “Mischief” may seem a rather coy description for...
he year is 1977. Brazil is in the midst of a military dictatorship that began with a US-backed coup in 1964 and lasted for 21 years. It is, as a title card at the film’s outset informs us, “Uma época cheia de pirraça”—a period of great mischief. “Mischief” may seem a rather coy description for a period that saw the death or disappearance of more than 400 Brazilians, and the imprisonment and torture of some 20,000 more. But then there are many misdirections in The Secret Agent, myriad mysteries that offer clues to its very particular time and place, that comprise an archive in themselves.
In the Belly of the Beast: Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent | Leo Goldsmith (MUBI)
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