Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” is now in theaters and garnering significant awards attention after its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it won best director and best actor, for star Wagner Moura, and as Brazil’s official international Oscar submission this year. Set in 1977 during the Brazilian military dictatorship, the film captures the unsettled political landscape of that time in Recife, with Moura starring as a university professor and political refugee who is attempting to flee the country with his son and evade harm from the authoritarian regime and corrupt businessmen.

In setting and topic, “The Secret Agent” calls to mind last year’s surprise Oscar superstar “I’m Still Here,” directed by Walter Salles, and selected by Brazil to represent the country at

See Full Page