The secret agent

One of the most powerful films ever made on the theme of South American dictatorships: this is how one can sum up 'The Secret Agent' by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, a film presented in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival where it won two major awards, best director and best actor to the extraordinary Wagner Moura. The power of "The Secret Agent", however, is not only dictated by its content, but also by a narrative structure that is always destabilising, capable of shaking and disorienting the spectator from beginning to end: starting with the character of Marcelo, the film continually moves in the territory of ambiguity, managing, also for this reason, to remain engaging throughout its approximately two and a half hour duration. Winning the Oscar for Best Picture is impossible, but being in the ten is the right recognition for a gigantic product.