Outdoor Cinema: The Secret Agent, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho

“The Secret Agent” is one of the most electrifying titles of recent years. Nominated for an Oscar in 4 categories (including Best Picture), winner of two Golden Globes and two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. The film by Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Aquarius”, “Bacurau”), one of the leading directors in contemporary world cinema, evokes the spirit of classic gangster cinema. At the same time, it boldly combines social drama with epic scope, humor with sex appeal, nostalgia with dread.

Mendonça Filho’s film is set in Brazil in the 1970s during carnival. The sun-scorched city of Recife is on the edge of madness: people die during the dancing celebrations, a shark with a human leg in its stomach is found on the beach, and two assassins with a secret mission move among the crowds… The colors and joy are only appearances – these are the times of a brutal military dictatorship. Marcelo, the hero of “The Secret Agent,” is a man accidentally caught up in a web of political and criminal intrigue reaching the highest levels of power. He was honest, so he became a target of a corrupt system, and now every step could cost him his life. How can he save himself and his family in a world of brutal violence, false identities, wiretaps, and lies?

For his role as the last honest man in a country corrupt to the core, Wagner Moura won a Golden Globe and an award at Cannes, and has a shot at his first Oscar. Known for “Narcos,” “Elite Squad,” and “Civil War,” the actor navigates a labyrinth of dirty secrets with the lightness and grace of an old Hollywood star. “The Secret Agent” is a tribute to the cinema of Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola, echoing their scale and spirit. Yet Mendonça Filho refreshes and reinterprets gangster-spy cinema, moving beyond clichés and genre conventions. Spectacular, engrossing, and perceptive, it reveals a piece of truth not only about the past, but about our own times.

Before the screening, Adam Krośnicki-Midoń will give an introductory talk.

Wednesday 2.09
Screening starts: 9:00 PM
Free admission
Odra-Pany