After Fátima’s death, Armando wants to leave Brazil with his son Fernando (Enzo Nunes) and take a position at another school abroad. But before he leaves the country, Armando needs to find files of his late mother, a woman who died when he was very young. As he puts it while speaking with a pair of resistance fighters who can help him leave the country, Armando is looking for “the only document to prove that my mother existed.”
The reveal is so subtle, so unremarkable that viewers could be excused for missing it. Armando may spend time with resistance fighters and communists, he may be a target of government officials and assassins, he may be operating under an assumed name and false pretenses, but he is no warrior. He’s simply a man who mourns the loss of his wife, who wants to protect his son, and who wants to remember his mother.
Such simple desires appear throughout The Secret Agent. Filho uses the movie’s leisurely 161-minute runtime to linger on people being people. Couples sneak off to have sex. Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), who runs the refugee community, stops to listen to everyone from revelers to those suffering from headaches. In a touching but infuriating coda, the grown Fernando (also portrayed by Moura) speaks with a university student researching about Armando in the present day.
In each of these instances, we’re reminded that no matter how dangerous and nonsensical the regime may be, it cannot fully destroy the one thing that always stands against it: the mere existence the people.
Watching As Resistance
For most of us catching up with it during Oscar season, The Secret Agent is opaque and challenging, even when it’s thrilling. Filho’s eye for detail and penchant for surrealism makes the movie feel inaccessible for those who don’t understand the specifics of 1970s Brazil.
Yet, there are two things that every viewer of The Secret Agent has in common with those on screen. First, they are all human, and the passion, anger, love, and sorrow on screen connects us all, no matter how far away from Recife we may be. Second, we are watching a movie, and the characters in The Secret Agent are all cinephiles. They know that even pulpy stuff like Jaws and The Omen can create immediate, powerful reactions.
