film Brazilian candidate for Oscar, “Secret Agent”from Cléber Mendonça Filhocollects reviews in international media and describes them Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal) As “lively”. The film premieres this week in the United States.
In a report published on Thursday (27), the Wall Street Journal highlighted that the manager from Pernambuco adopts A creativefind banter Amidst the horror by depicting resistance during Brazilian military dictatorship In 1977, something considered “unusual” in films about surviving tyranny.
The protagonist Marcelo, played by Wagner Mourareveals an air of “despair” marked by the loss of his wife and his relationship with his young son, in the Wall Street Journal’s perception, and the interesting point is that his path in countryside It is revealed little by little.
The critic also points out that sometimes, The director avoids the corridors of political power and focuses the narrative on people’s daily lives.
Finally, the newspaper presents the film as a production that combines humour, violence and sadness, and its events take place during a period of repression. It is in keeping with the director’s recurring interest in the physical and emotional spaces of Recife.
“Visceral,” according to the New York Times
In the opinion of New York Times (New York Times)The film also combines comedy and catastrophe in what he calls “a densely constructed work of sensual realism.”
In a report published on Wednesday (26), the newspaper also highlighted that Mendonça Filho adopts a “free and innovative” approach, finding comedic elements in violent situations.
The car reinforces that the professor returns to Recife not just as a place, but as a central element in the narrativeLinking the film to previous works such as “Aquarius“and”Ghost picturesThe New York Times notes that the city appears amidst “threatening shadows,” but also as a space of affection, sociability, and alliances between characters living under political oppression.
As for the vehicle, the context of the dictatorship is constantly recalled in the film, whether through the setting, such as the State Identification Center decorated with portraits of then-President Ernesto Geisel, or through the everyday gestures of the characters, living the experience of the dictatorship. He is afraid Interspersed with short moments of happiness.
The New York Times highlights the use “Ridiculous” comic shocks.Transitions between different periods and building the world of the film with musical, visual and cinematic references.
The newspaper also mentions prominent minor figures, such as: Hansplayed before Udo Kire, whose short appearance is described as “profound” and representative of the director’s narrative strategy. Mendonça Filho has been portrayed as a film director who rejects convention and combines elements “high and low”, “refined and raw”; “Humor and brutality.”
According to The New York Times, the film treats its protagonist not as a classic resistance hero, but as “An innocent and ordinary man“Forcibly involved in a context of repression.