Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi has acquired the political thriller The Secret Agent from author and director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Ghost Portrait, Bacurau, Aquarius), which has been a standout within the Cannes Movie Competition competitors, for the U.Okay., Eire, India and Latin America, apart from Brazil.
The Portuguese-language film, a couple of know-how knowledgeable returning to his hometown in 1977 to reunite together with his younger son and flee the nation, premiered at Cannes on Sunday. The Secret Agent stars Wagner Moura, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho and Hermila Guedes.
Mubi will unveil launch plans for the varied territories within the close to future. It struck the cope with MK2, which is dealing with worldwide gross sales on the film. Neon has acquired the movie for North America.
The Secret Agent is ready in Brazil in 1977. “Marcelo, a know-how knowledgeable in his early 40s, is on the run,” reads a synopsis. “He arrives in Recife throughout carnival week, hoping to reunite together with his son however quickly realizes that the town is way from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.”
The movie has drawn rave evaluations. “Enlivened by a populous, nearly Altman-esque gallery of characters — approach too many to say — performed and not using a single false observe, and by the robust sense of a group pulling collectively for security from the oppressive forces exterior, the film luxuriates in an inebriating sense of time and place that speaks of Mendonça Filho’s intense love for the setting,” David Rooney wrote in his THR evaluate. “It’s a serious achievement, and for my cash, certain to be top-of-the-line movies of the yr.
The Secret Agent is the Brazilian filmmaker’s third movie to premiere in competitors at Cannes after Aquarius in 2016 and Bacurau, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Juliano Dornelles and gained the Prix du Jury, in 2019. In 2017, Filho served because the jury president of the Critics’ Week part at Cannes and his second documentary Photos of Ghosts premiered within the Particular Screenings part on the 2023 competition.
The Secret Agent has Moura returning to Portuguese-language cinema after a number of years away. The movie is produced by Emilie Lesclaux, Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz, Fionnuala Jamison, Olivier Barbier, Leontine Petit, Erik Glijnis, Fred Burke and Sol Bondy.