Wagner Moura and Kleber Mendonca Filho discuss The Secret Agent – right after a call from Brazil’s president

Wagner Moura and Kleber Mendonca Filho, star and director of political thriller The Secret Agent, have been delayed, slightly, I’m told.

A few minutes turn into quite a few more minutes, which is not usually a promising sign when it comes to interviewing film stars and filmmakers, but it turns out there’s a good reason – an unexpected phone call from the president of Brazil. Not the kind of caller you send to voicemail.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, wanted to congratulate them on the film’s success: a string of honours starting with major wins at the Cannes Film Festival back in May, which now includes a Critics Choice award, Golden Globe wins for best actor and best non-English language film, plus two BAFTA and four Oscar nominations.

As the first Brazilian ever to be nominated for best actor, Moura has made Academy Awards history.

“I think it’s meaning a lot to Brazilians, especially because we went through a very bad moment in our history where artists and culture were seen in a very negative way,” says Moura. “It’s a huge transformation, you know, and it’s a big change.”

Veteran leftist Da Silva returned as Brazil’s president after beating the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in 2022. In November last year, Bolsonaro began a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after his election loss.

The former leader’s three-year tenure was marked by misogynistic and homophobic rhetoric, and a hostility towards culture and the arts; things have changed dramatically under Da Silva.

“We went from living in a country where we were seen, perceived by the power as enemies of the people to a moment where the president himself is calling us to say that, hey, we are proud of you,” says Moura. “The president saying that ‘I see the culture, I see films, I see books, I see this as an important tool to the development of the country’. It’s a reconnection.”

The Secret Agent is set in 1977, during the brutal military dictatorship in Brazil that lasted for more than 20 years, and Moura plays Armando, a professor forced into hiding after clashing with a regime official. While it started as a period thriller, the echoes of recent history are there.

‘It requires courage to stick to your values’

The Portuguese-language film is up there among the most celebrated of Hollywood’s awards season, particularly following Moura’s best actor win at the Globes, over favourite Michael B Jordan for his portrayal of twin brothers in Sinners.

Mendonca Filho says the part of Armando was “tailor-made” for Moura. After years of talk about making something together, “it only worked when I finally sat down to write a script thinking specifically about working with him”.

Moura, who is better known globally for his portrayal of notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in the hit series Narcos, says the film is about generational trauma and values, and he was able to draw from his own experiences.

“This film is about a man who is sticking with the values he has, during the dictatorship, which are obviously values that are opposite to [his],” he says.

“What Kleber and I went through during the Bolsonaro time in Brazil is a big example of that. It requires a lot of… courage to stick with your values when what’s established around you says the opposite, especially in this polarised world.

“I think that it’s getting harder and harder because the idea of truth is disappearing, you know… facts, they don’t matter anymore.”

There was once a time when the right and the left “would discuss and we would even fight over something, but we were both seeing the same thing”, he continues. “Nowadays, it’s not about facts anymore, it’s about versions, so we are not living in the same mental space, which is a very dangerous thing.”

Red carpet award controversy

But people are connecting with The Secret Agent. Since Cannes, Moura says, “this film has been receiving so much attention, steadily – it hasn’t dropped – which is very rare and kind of amazing, especially for a Brazilian film”.

Which is why a move to hand out the Critics Choice award for best international feature film on the red carpet, rather than during the ceremony itself, proved particularly controversial.

The awards hierarchy is nothing new, with the Oscars criticised in recent years over plans not to televise certain technical (read: not enough star-power) awards to tighten the broadcast time.

But Filho, who was clearly caught by surprise as he was unceremoniously handed his Critics Choice prize, says now – as Donald Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown continues in the US – is a particularly troubling time to make such a decision around international films.

“I think politically, whoever made that decision doesn’t seem to have a pulse on what is taking place in the world now and in the United States,” he says. “I think once you invite someone to your party, just give him or her all the drink that he or she deserves, you know, don’t say, oh I don’t have the right to drink this like everybody else.”

Moura highlights the many brilliant non-English language films in the awards conversation this year, including Sentimental Value, submitted by Norway, Sirat (Spain) and It was Just An Accident (France).

“In a year where the international films are great… politically, it doesn’t feel right at all.”

Now is an important time for filmmakers, says Filho. “It does feel like the world is sliding back into a moment of conflict. And it’s happening in many different areas and authoritarians are also back in a big way.

“So as much as it feels so bad and we worry to death about what is taking place, it’s also a very fertile moment to develop stories and tell stories, because the irony of present-day use of power is something that is part of our lives.”

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