It was theatrically released in Brazil and Germany on 6 November 2025 by Vitrine Filmes and Port-au-Prince Films, respectively, and was released in France on 17 December by Ad Vitam.
Plot
In 1977, during the political turmoil of the Brazilian military dictatorship, former professor and widower Armando Solimões travels during the carnival holiday to Recife, where his young son Fernando has been living with his in-laws since the death of his wife, Fátima Nascimento. He arrives at a refuge operated by former anarcho-communist Dona Sebastiana, where he adopts the name Marcelo and befriends other political dissidents including Claudia, Haroldo and Angolan Civil Warrefugees Thereza Vitória and Antonio. Meanwhile, corrupt Civil Police chief Euclides and his sons Sergio and Arlindo are called in during the holiday to investigate a severed human leg that has been found inside a captured tiger shark.
Armando is placed in a job by his dissident network at the city's identity card office under the alias of Marcelo, where he has a chance encounter with Euclides, who offers him his friendship and protection. Armando is visibly annoyed by Euclides's arrogant behaviour, which includes harassing Hans, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who is mistakenly assumed to be a Nazi fugitive. Armando's job also affords him the opportunity to search for files on his late mother, of whom he has few memories. Meanwhile, in São Paulo, hitmen Bobbi and Augusto are hired by former Eletrobras executive director Henrique Ghirotti to kill Armando, against whom he has a political and personal vendetta.
Armando meets Elza, the leader of a political resistance movement in the Brazilian northeast, at the Cinema São Luiz[pt], where his father-in-law Sr. Alexandre works as a projectionist. Recording a testimony about Ghirotti's corrupt activities, Armando recounts a dinner he attended with Fátima that ended in a physical altercation with Ghirotti and his son, following remarks on the couple's lower socioeconomic class and supposed communist sympathies. Elza informs Armando that a contract killing has been ordered and instructs him to flee the country. Sergio and Arlindo dispose of the human leg in the Capibaribe River, where it suddenly revives and attacks gay men cruising in a public park at night; the story, presumably a newspaper cover-up for the political corruption and violence during the carnival week, creates a public frenzy. Augusto and Bobbi hire a local impoverished gunman, Vilmar, to find Armando. Anticipating a departure, Armando bids farewell to Dona Sebastiana and the other refugees.
The following day, Armando's cover is blown after Bobbi surveils Sr. Alexandre. Vilmar identifies Armando but fails to kill him, shooting Arlindo and a fellow police officer. Bobbi, watching from afar, chases a bleeding Vilmar through Recife's city centre and is later killed in a barbershop by Vilmar.
In the present day, history student Flavia researches Elza's resistance network through audio recordings and newspaper archives, learning that Armando was murdered and framed as a corrupt professor. Travelling to Recife, Flavia meets with Fernando, now a middle-aged doctor, who agrees to be interviewed in the hospital where he works after Flavia donates blood. The pair discuss Armando's political past and subsequent assassination, and the identity of Armando's mother "India". Fernando states he does not have a single memory of his father, but fondly recalls watching Jaws with his grandfather at a cinema which has since become the hospital where he works.
Cast
Wagner Moura as Armando Solimões / Marcelo Alves and Fernando Solimões (adult)[7]
All the aspects of "the hairy leg" story are based on real newspaper reports from the late 1970s that created a public frenzy in Recife, specially from the Diário de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Daily) coverage. The story allowed the press to conveniently cover-up censored news about police violence, corruption and homophobia during the late years of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship.[20] The typical Brazilian public phones known as "orelhão" are extensively used throughout the story by Armando, and also became a promotional symbol of the film.[21]
The production marked Wagner Moura's first Portuguese language production in eight years.[22][23] It was Udo Kier's final feature film role before his death in November 2025,[24] in his second collaboration with Mendonça Filho following Bacurau (2019).
Filming
Carnival parade in Recife near Cinema São Luiz.
Principal photography took place during ten weeks in 2024, shooting on location in Recife, Pernambuco. Many of the films scenes were shot in historical city's buildings, such as the Cinema São Luiz[pt] (one of the last art house cinemas in Brazil) and on most of Recife's colonial bridges.[25] For the haired leg chase scenes, shooting took place in location at the Capibaribe River, featuring its usual capybara inhabitants, and at "May 13th Park" (Parque 13 de Maio[pt]). Carnival scenes were reenacted near the Aurora Street (Rua da Aurora), where Recife's main carnival association parade take place. Scenes featuring the captured tiger shark and Armando teaching past were shot at the Federal University of Pernambuco campus, a state owned university.[25]
Additional scenes were shot in São Paulo, featuring Euclides and Bobbi characters. Principal photography wrapped by late August 2024.[26][27]Pick-up scenes were shot in Brasilia in December 2024.[28]
Mendonça Filho and his long-time partner Emilie Lesclaux produced the film through their film company CinemaScópio. The film also marks Russian-French cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova's first collaboration with the filmmaker,[29] who shot the film with Panavision anamorphic lenses and vintage camera equipment, aiming to replicate the visual style of the 1970s movies.[30]
The film's Brazilian premiere took place on 10 September 2025 at the Cinema São Luiz[pt].[44]
It received a wide theatrical release in Brazil and Germany on 6 November 2025. Neon released the film in North American theaters on 26 November.[45] It received a theatrical release on 17 December by Ad Vitam in France.
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend in Brazil, The Secret Agent had 273,000 admissions, grossing R$6.6 million at the box office, topping Predator: Badlands debut weekend (R$5.7 million) and Black Phone 2 fourth weekend (R$1.8 million).[46][47] By the end of its first full week, alongside September and October previews, the film had surpassed 500,000 admissions and R$10 million at the box office.[48][49] By 27 February 2026, The Secret Agent had 2.3 million admissions in Brazil, grossing R$44 million ($8.5 million) and surpassing Bacurau as Mendonça's highest-grossing film.[50]
In its limited release weekend in the United States, The Secret Agent grossed $71k on the 5-day opening Thanksgiving holiday, with an average $23k per theatre, beating I'm Still Here’s previous record for Brazilian productions opening weekend in the U.S.[51] By 27 February 2026, the film had grossed $3.9 million in its limited 312 theatres run at the U.S. box office.[52]
On its opening weekend in France, The Secret Agent had more than 100,000 admissions, grossing $726k over 186 theatres. By 1 February 2026 the film had grossed $3.3 million at the French box office with +400,000 admissions. Bringing its international box office total to $9.7 million.[53][52]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 190 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "A thematically rich and visually arresting political thriller, The Secret Agent blends grindhouse stylization with biting social commentary to weave a vividly dangerous yet darkly human tale."[54]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[55]
Steve Pond of TheWrap pointed out that "cohesiveness or coherence are not high on [the film's] list of attributes", "but [the film's] messiness is part of its charm".[56]David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a 'B+' score, concluding that "always compelling, but sometimes more sedate than its material demands — [it] is often at its most alive during its detours".[57]
Other critics praised the film for its ambition, visual style, and emotional depth. Shannon Connellan of Mashable called it “a complex, time-jumping political crime thriller” and wrote that its “compelling script, impeccable acting, and striking 1970s aesthetic” make it “impossible to look away.” [58] Pavel Snapkou of Showbiz by PS described the film as “a bright and memorable” neo-noir political thriller, praising its “vivid, vibrant scenes” and calling Moura “electrifyingly good,” delivering “one of the best male performances of the year.” [59] Carlos Aguilar of The Playlist hailed the film as “an imposing masterpiece steeped in history and a palpable adoration for cinema.” [60] For critic Matt Zoller Seitz, he named The Secret Agent as the second best film of 2025, behind the Palestinian film From Ground Zero, stating in his review that "Once in a while, you see a movie that doesn’t feel made, but extracted from a dreaming mind.... If you’re willing to bend with the story, 'The Secret Agent' will take you places movies rarely go.[61][62]
By August, the film was shortlisted alongside five other Brazilian feature films. Shortly after, reports emerged suggesting a possible snub in favor of Manas (2024), which was supported by a lobby of 70 high-profile companies for its supposed "urgent subject in Brazil". The movement created a public uproar driven by the perception of abuse of political and personal power in the Brazilian Oscar submission process, instead of artistic merit and commercial logic.[67][68][69]
Following the negative response to the Manas campaign from critics and the Brazilian film industry, which included a four-minute long video by Fernanda Torres supporting selection of the The Secret Agent, the latter was ultimately chosen as the country's official submission on 15 September.[70][71][72][73][74]
↑Fidalgo, Sabrina & Mendonça Filho, Kleber (6 November 2025). "Entre voos, lentes e memórias: Kleber Mendonça Filho fala sobre o desejo de filmar o Brasil em 'O Agente Secreto'"(interview with reporter's introduction). Vogue Brasil (Vogue.Globo.com) (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 11 December 2025. ...a gente é o fruto da dieta que consome. Isso vale para tudo... E os filmes dos anos 70 sempre me interessaram muito, fizeram parte da minha formação. ... / Sempre volto a diretores como Robert Altman, Brian De Palma, Sam Peckinpah, Steven Spielberg (especialmente o Spielberg dos anos 70) e Martin Scorsese. Filmes como 'The Long Goodbye', 'Nashville', 'Carrie, a Estranha', 'Contatos Imediatos', 'Tubarão' e 'Chinatown' me fascinam. [...we are the product of the diet we consume. This applies to everything... And the films of the 1970s have always interested me a great deal; they were part of my formative years. ... / I always return to directors like ... (especially the Spielberg of the 70s)... Films like ... fascinate me.]{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑Kleber Mendonça Filho: "The hairy leg was actually created by a local journalist who was so fed up with not being able to write about what happened last night in terms of violence — because, of course, the police or the military inflicted the terror on the gay population, people having sex in parks, smoking pot. And so he developed a ‘hairy leg’ as a code. So, [he would write], ‘The hairy leg struck again last night,’ and everybody knew that something bad related to the police force was involved."Carey, Matthew (20 May 2025). "'The Secret Agent's Kleber Mendonça Filho And Wagner Moura On Brazil's Urban Legend Of The Hairy Leg: "It Hops And Kicks" – Cannes Studio". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 17 January 2026.
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