The Secret Agent (2025) dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho @ Naro Expanded Cinema

One of this year's Best Picture nominees at the Oscars. Get tickets at the Naro website.

RUNTIME: 133 minutes

RATED: R

SYNOPSIS (via the Naro): Amid the raucous revelry of Carnival week, a widower named Marcelo (renowned actor Wagner Moura) arrives in 1977 in Recife, Brazil, a city as vibrant as it is violent. A technology researcher who suddenly finds himself an unwitting target in the heart of the dictatorship's political maelstrom, Marcelo is a man on the run from mercenary killers, from ghosts of the past and from the ruthless, mischievously militant spirit of Brazil in 1977. In the midst of these mounting threats, Marcelo, with the help of a mysterious woman named Elza and her compatriots in the country's growing underground resistance, remains primarily focused on escaping Brazil with his young son. Master filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho teams up with Moura - giving an extraordinary, career-defining performance - to craft a thrillingly unpredictable, playfully shape-shifting epic steeped in history even as it feels remarkably contemporary, paying affectionate tribute to the movies of Filho’s youth while unfolding against the backdrop of political turmoil and palpable danger.

BLURBS:

"The complexity of the storytelling here is considerable, and probably wouldn’t work without a strong, grounding central presence. It’s thus hard to say enough about the quality of Moura’s performance." - Adam Nayman, Toronto Star

"Fiery and relentlessly paced (its 158 minutes don’t contain a minute of bloat), the political thriller pivoting around themes of paranoia and resistance feels perfectly tuned to the moment." - Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail

"For Mendonça Filho, who has poured his love for his city, his country and its people into this masterpiece of a film, his favorite way to process anything is through making and watching movies. It's his best film, and the best film of the year." - Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service