Kléber Mendonça Filho and Wagner Moura from ‘The Secret Agent’

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. The Secret Agent is not only an awards season darling, but also a box office hit. The Brazilian political crime thriller is a visual feast. It's set in late 70s Brazil, when the country was still under a dictatorship. And it follows the story of Marcelo, played by Wagner Moura, a professor that moves to the city of Recife during Carnival to start over and escape his violent past. I had the pleasure to meet the film's director, Kleber Mendonça Filho and its leading actor, Wagner Moura.

0:55Essa é a pessoa que eu quero. Buraco na boca. No teu caso, é o que eu mais quero resolver. Cleber Mendonça Filho e Wagner Moura, what a pleasure to speak to both of you. Cleber, I'll start with you because I know The Secret Agent is a very special project for you because it's been quite a long-time desire that you wanted to do this film, right? It took some time, so tell us about that process a little bit. It began with the desire to develop a thriller set in the 1970s, shot in widescreen Panavision. That was the desire. also to do it with Wagner as the main actor. That's the first thing. Then I found myself going through a lot of materials and archives for my last film, my previous film, Pictures of Ghosts.

1:54And I spent seven years trying to make that film work. It finally did in 2023. But I had been looking at old newspapers, photographs, films, you know visiting cinematechs and that gave me reconnected myself to memories childhood memories and suddenly i felt that i had the emotional structure to write the secret agent but something that was unplanned it just happened that i felt it was the right time because of all the work i had given to pictures of ghosts and then the last thing that happened because that's how these things come together. We were going through the Bolsonaro years, and the Bolsonaro years, they were a bizarre mixture of 21st century far-rights with this fetishistic desire to bring back the good old days of the military dictatorship.

2:58And in many ways, I was writing about the 70s, but living the complete madness of going through those years in the 21st century, in modern times. So I think a lot of the energy from the film came from that crazy and just dreadful moment in Brazilian, contemporary Brazilian history. Oh, very dreadful indeed. And Wagner, how does it feel finally working with Kleber? It's been a while. and returned to acting Portuguese as well after a few, you know. Can you imagine? It was like, I had the best time of my life. It was really amazing. I, till today, I was like, towns on me that I hadn't worked in Portuguese for 12 years.

3:47But, you know, it was, you know, I was directing Marigela and then I did Narcos and that took me a long time. And then there was the Bolsonaro years years where there was no movies, no audiovisual in Brazil at all. But, you know, I kind of, things happen when they have to happen. And I was, I've been trying to work with Kleber for a while since I met him, basically. And I, um, and I think that was the perfect project for us. It's very political. We're both political persons and it's like as cinematic as it can get and as Brazilian as it can get. and as I say, Northeastern, as a king dad, you know.

4:29So we're both from the Northeast and from Salvador, from Recife, we shared lots of cultural codes. And it was amazing. It was amazing. It was very liberating to be doing something in my own language for us. You know, I can't even tell you how amazing it was. And to be doing that with Kleber and in Recife, it was really special. And Kleber is interesting because you can be political in many ways doing a film as well. because for me, of course, very political setting, the dictatorship. It feels at times it's also a love letter to cinema, especially 70s cinema. I love the references to Jaws as well, which is one of my favorite films as well.

5:06So you wanted to combine. I think you can make a film about the dictatorship in many ways as well, right? Well, yeah, particularly if you invest quite a lot of energy in the idea of rebuilding a sense of time. I think rebuilding a sense of time is as important as focusing on, for example, a true story. I mean, this film is not based on a true story. It's all fiction. But the sense of time is quite truthful, I would say, and very honest. Because it comes from not only my own childhood memories, but from many stories that I borrowed. from many memories that I borrowed and that are now my memories, but they were actually told to me by family members, my uncles, my parents.

5:59I think that sense of truth is in the film, and I think it's also in the actors. When you work with a cast like this, they are incredibly truthful people, even as citizens, not only as actors of sorts, great actors. but I think it's very much about some truth social truth, human truth and that has to be present in the image it has to be very much what the film is and I'm happy with that sense of truth which is, you could pick it up even if you're not Brazilian we've had great reactions all over the world to the film about some sense of truth which I find really fascinating to know that it's something that can be picked up by anyone The casting is fantastic.

6:46I have to add it. Tanja Manier. Tanja Manier. Wow. I mean, she made a few emotions. Amazing, amazing character. He's the next one. He's the next one. Who is Armando? No. His name is Marcelo. Armando? Armando?

7:11Wagner, I might ask you, what do you feel about, are you optimistic about Brazilian cinema at the moment? Because honestly, outside, we are all talking about it. Of course, there's been films, I'm still here, but we have other directors, Gabriel Mascaro as well. Is it a good moment? Yes, indeed. It's a great moment. And I think that's not, you cannot disconnect the great moment that we are going through to the great democratic moment that Wurzy was going through. I think that democracy in art, democracy in films, democracy in theater, democracy in art in general, they walk together. So we now live in a country that the government believes in culture as a tool of development for the country.

7:53It's a culture as a mirror where we can see ourselves and then the world can see this country as well. So, yeah, I'm just happy that this is going on now. And it's a shame that we go, this is like waves, right? Like, and then the Brazilian cycles. Like, I hope this cycle, this is not only another cycle, but that we can keep believing in the importance of culture. And finally, a question to both of you. Are you ready for the World Cup feeling that you have in Brazil? I kind of like it in a way, because, you know, we are very kind of passionate in that sense. Yeah, the reporter asked me the other day, and he was like, Fernando Torres asked us not to go into World Cup mode.

8:36I was like, why? I think it's pretty... It's impossible, Anos. I love the fact that, you know, I love... One of the things that I loved about the team that I loved most about I'm Still Here and Brazil is to see all those Brazilians rooting for them and seeing those artists and go like, oh my God, we see ourselves in them. I think that's beautiful, especially considering that we went through a time that were artists and were labeled as enemies of the people. So I think, yeah, I'm good with the World Cup thing. Are you? We were in the US and people were asking questions about the Brazilians supporting Brazilian films.

9:17And I said, that's great. You know, Brazilians are super connected. You're super aware of and very sensitive to the way Brazil is seen outside Brazil, abroad. I think having a film on the international stage like the awards season is a pretty big thing and I'm happy that we got all the support and Neon, Moby they are keeping an eye on the Brazilian the supporters, let's say the admirers of the film and I think it's a really cool energy in fact and what happened last year with Fernanda was amazing and let's see if we have a repetition this year with the amount of energy around the film You and my friend.

10:03You don't know who you are. You're not.

10:09A man would say that Brazil is the best. How are you. This guy.

10:20Thank you very much, Kleber and Wagner there. The Secret Agent is out now in the US, Brazil and Europe and will be released on the UK on the 20th of February. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco and the show was edited by Jack Dewars. Thank you for listening.