Better than this, only many more like this.

All it took was a cast, script, direction, editing, and a handheld camera. Any and all doubts about the need to elect Lula and secure a majority in Congress in 2026 are dispelled with the film 'The Secret Agent', now showing in theaters. The work is yet another by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the Pernambuco native who, from his village, sees "how much of the Earth can be seen of the Universe," echoing the prose of Fernando Pessoa, and joins the samba singer-poet-composer Arlindo Cruz, who describes his suburban Madureira neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro as "my place, surrounded by struggle and sweat, hope for a better world, and beer to celebrate."

'The Secret Agent' adds a new chapter to the history of the dictatorship in Brazil, focusing on the year 1977. The protagonist is Armando, a young university professor at a public institution, an academic with postgraduate training abroad and a technology specialist. Leading a research group, he discovers and patents a new energy production process. The patent, which allows the public sector to guarantee the use of the service for the common cause of national development, is being sought by a businessman connected to the powers of the dictatorship. Armando's determination to thwart this attempt seals his fate as a 'marked man'.

Discovery and resistance are key to exposing the violence of a state dominated for 525 years by conservative and reactionary elites who, in the present day, are accelerating the struggle for the appropriation of public resources for private interests. Just as yesterday, the extermination of the dissenting voice, or its perspective, continues to be a method, just as it was during those years of official dictatorship.

The film is a feature-length film like those of the old days. It's 2 hours and 38 minutes of everything happening in the country at once. A titanic intertextuality that weaves together the hustle and bustle of daily life, from the prosaic to the profound, always permeated by violence without losing the thread of the story. The circularity of the script sustains the heavy atmosphere without relegating the film to the clichés of an action thriller. This is achieved through the organic complicity of the camera and editing. The shot of Armando's dancing back as he confidently crosses a carnival parade after learning he was being hunted by a hitman is just one of many moments capable of realizing the unacceptable brutality against the taste of life's small joys.

In 'The Secret Agent,' everything is laid bare. Costume design, set design, and period reconstruction serve as yet another catalyst for immersion in time and space. Jumping to the present, the events are preserved by a young researcher who records the memory on a flash drive and gives it to Armando's son. Now, the story is in the pocket of Dr. Fernando's lab coat, and it's up to him to decide what to do with it.

Wagner Moura plays Armando/Marcelo/Fernando. Marcelo is the codename adopted by Armando to try and evade repression. For his performance, he received the Best Actor award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. At the same event, director Kleber Mendonça Filho won the Best Director award. At the 2026 Oscars, 'The Secret Agent' will represent Brazil in the Best International Film category. Bring it on. 

But, ultimately, who is the secret agent? Interpretation is open, and the article has its own. The secret agent is the State, executing the whims and abuses of the conservative and reactionary elites who appropriate the state apparatus. Recently, Wagner Moura offered a straightforward profile of what this dominant ideology is: "I can't explain the Rouanet Law to someone who hasn't yet grasped the Golden Law." As they used to say back then, "that's it, man."