'The Secret Agent' Is Brazil's Oscar Submission for a Reason

The past is never the past is never the past — especially if you lived in Brazil in 1977, “a period of great mischief.” That’s the scene-setting intertitle that opens The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s extraordinary excavation of a bygone age of national repression that may or may not bear a striking resemblance to more recent ages of authoritarianism. It follows a montage of vintage black & white photos, both candid snapshots of everyday life and film stills, and the sound of two radio announcers bantering over “Samba No Arpège,” Brazilian composer Waldir Calmon’s popular 1957 hit. Two minutes in, and the movie is already mashing together eras and histories, the personal and the political, the real and the fictional. Disorientation is a key factor in Filho’s arsenal. He’s a f