The film, which begins with a title card that cheekily establishes the 1977 setting as “a time of great mischief,” hatches a byzantine plot centered around a widowed ex-tech researcher, Armando (Wagner Moura), who’s been reduced to living in hiding ever since his leftist political sentiments put him on the radar of Brazil’s military dictatorship. More broadly appealing than Mendonça Filho’s past films, The Secret Agent is still unmistakably the work of an artist who’s deeply fascinated with the ways in which cinema, politics, and personal history co-mingle. Returning to Recife in order to be closer to his young son, Fernando (Enzo Nunes), he takes refuge among a group of other political dissidents housed by the spunky 77-year-old Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria) while working a job at the state identification archives for cover. But just as he’s settling into his new life, Armando learns that two hitmen, Augusto (Roney Villela) and Bobbi (Gabriel Leone), have arrived in town to kill him.-SLANT Magazine

“You won’t see a better political thriller this year than Filho’s ultra-chic genre entry”-Elle