The Secret Agent

Kleber Mendonça Filho's gripping thriller won top prizes at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and the 2026 Golden Globes: “Best Director,” “Best International Film,” and Wagner Moura as “Best Actor.” At the upcoming Academy Awards (March 16, 2026), “The Secret Agent” is in the running for the awards for “Best Picture,” “Best International Film,” “Best Actor,” and “Best Casting.” The film will be available on filmfriend starting March 12! Brazil, 1977: During the exuberant Carnival week, Marcelo (Wagner Moura) returns from São Paulo to the coastal city of Recife. There, the single man in his forties hopes to see his son again, whom he left with his grandparents. But his arrival does not go unnoticed – amid the celebrating crowds and omnipresent violence, Marcelo becomes entangled in an ever-tightening web of surveillance, corruption, and mistrust from which there is no escape. What begins as a personal journey develops into a dangerous game in the shadow of the military dictatorship. Highly suspenseful, moving, and visually stunning, “The Secret Agent” is an immersive cinematic experience and has become one of the best and most award-winning films of the 2025 cinema year. “Narcos” actor Wagner Moura, a big star in his native Brazil, gives his character Marcelo a moving personal touch. Udo Kier can also be admired here in his last, extremely memorable role as the exiled German “Hans.” Slowly but impressively, and in an astonishingly entertaining 161 minutes, the slowly unfolding chase and its life-threatening dimensions are conveyed. Last but not least, the film also tells a very personal story of individual fate from the collective nightmare of the Brazilian military dictatorship. A sun-drenched masterpiece that immediately captivates the viewer!