Podcast Summary: “Oscar Nominated Political Drama 'The Secret Agent’”
All Of It with Alison Stewart, WNYC – March 9, 2026

Episode Overview

In this rich and timely episode, host Alison Stewart speaks with director Kleber Mendonça Filho and actor Wagner Moura about their Oscar-nominated film, The Secret Agent. The discussion delves deep into how the film—a political thriller set in 1970s Brazil—uses personal stories, cultural specificity, magical realism, and humor to explore the lives of everyday people caught up in oppressive regimes. Both guests reflect on art under authoritarianism, working in their native language, found family, and the power of memory in cinema, drawing parallels between the film’s historical backdrop and contemporary Brazil.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shooting in Recife: The Importance of Place

[03:21-04:56]

• Filho explains that all his films are set in his hometown, Recife, in northeastern Brazil. The city, with its coastal culture and history, is central to the storytelling and helps bring authenticity.
• Quote: “It’s a coastal city. It has a lot of personality… I’m happy that after five films, Recife gets quite a lot of recognition because of the films that I have been making there.” (03:39, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

2. Language & Identity in Performance

[04:54-05:53]

• Moura, known internationally for “Narcos," shares the liberation of acting in his native Portuguese after 12 years.
• Quote: “When I speak Portuguese, it feels like the words, they come out of my mouth with memory.” (05:35, Wagner Moura)

3. Brazilian Culture On Screen

[06:18-07:12]

• Filho highlights a scene during Carnival, where collective celebration helps characters temporarily escape sorrow—a deeply Brazilian reaction to hardship.

• Quote: “If you have a problem, you’ll think about it after Carnival. So that’s a very classic Brazilian thing.” (06:56, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

• The filmmakers discuss visual motifs, such as dictator portraits, which reference Brazil’s oppressive regime from 1964-1985.

• Quote: “They love to hang their pictures in public buildings to remind everybody who was… the boss.” (07:32, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

4. Art in Authoritarian Times: Parallels to Today

[07:42-10:19]

• Both guests explicitly connect the repression depicted in the film to recent Brazilian politics, notably under President Jair Bolsonaro.
• Moura details the suppression of his prior film “Marigela”, a biopic about an anti-dictatorship resistance leader.
• Quote: “Bolsonaro praised the dictatorship… So my film premiered in Berlin in 2019, and I could only release the film in Brazil in 2021 after a big fight.” (09:03, Wagner Moura)

5. Character Study: Marcelo, an Ordinary Hero

[10:19-13:35]

• Filho and Moura discuss the protagonist, Marcelo—a scientist and father. They frame him as an accessible, classic hero caught in extreme circumstances.
• Marcelo’s Flaws: Though a “good man,” his decisions—especially regarding family—have sparked debate in Brazil.
• Quote: “He’s a man that’s sticking with the values that he has when everything around him is saying the opposite…” (07:42, Wagner Moura)
• On ambiguity: “He [Filho] never spoon-feeds the audience with answers.” (13:04, Wagner Moura)

6. Paternal Drive & Stoicism Under Duress

[13:35-14:54]

• Moura relates Marcelo’s single-minded desire to reunite with and protect his son, Fernando, to his own experience of fatherhood.
• Quote: “Being a father is the most important part of my own life… He can’t react…in an explosive way. He has to be stoic… to protect that boy.” (14:36, Wagner Moura)

7. Sanctuary and Found Family: Dona Sebastiana’s House

[15:11-19:10]

• A vivid segment describes the home run by Dona Sebastiana, an octogenarian matriarch (and non-professional actress) providing refuge for the persecuted.
• The hosts and guests reflect on how her character and performance anchor the film’s warmth, unpredictability, and found family dynamic.
• Quote: “She reinforces what it is to be an actor…to be present…she just brings herself to the character and she’s just there as herself.” (17:37, Wagner Moura)
• Quote: “The notion of comedy in a film is not something you should provoke…she simply is funny.” (18:26, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

8. Surreal Humor and Urban Legend: The Hairy Leg

[19:17-21:42]

• The film injects surreal humor with the recurring “hairy leg,” a code invented by censored journalists in 1970s Recife to describe police attacks.
• Quote: “Instead of saying that the police…attacked people in the park, they would write…the hairy leg attacked people in the park. And this became a phenomenon, an urban legend.” (20:07, Kleber Mendonça Filho)
• The “hairy leg” becomes an emblematic metaphor for how truth can be smuggled past regime censors through myth and imagination.

9. Jaws as Cultural Text and Metaphor

[21:43-23:16]

• References to the 1975 film “Jaws” are woven throughout the film, both as authentic period detail and metaphor for hidden dangers.
• Quote: “Films…are like time stamps for our lives. And I think that explains why Jaws is part of the heart of this film.” (22:16, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

10. The Quiet Denouement: Memory, Ambiguity, and Loss

[23:16-24:33]

• Without spoiling plot details, Moura and Filho discuss how the film’s resolution embodies uncertainty and the elusiveness of memory—both for individuals and nations.
• Quote: “This is a film about memory also, and about the lack of memory…” (23:28, Wagner Moura)

11. Remembering Udo Kier

[24:33-25:50]

• The group pays tribute to actor Udo Kier, who appears in the movie and passed away recently.
• Quote: “He made over 200 films…he was the most loving, crazy German I’ve ever met in my life.” (24:43, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

12. Recognition & Audience Impact

[25:50-26:14]

• The episode closes on the news that The Secret Agent has just won Best International Film and Best Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle.
• Quote: “We just heard that the film got Best International Film…and Best Actor for Wagner Moura.” (25:59, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “When I speak Portuguese, it feels like the words, they come out of my mouth with memory.”
  – Wagner Moura ([05:35])

• “If you have a problem, you’ll think about it after Carnival. That’s a very classic Brazilian thing.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([06:56])

• “They love to hang their pictures in public buildings to remind everybody who was… the boss.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([07:32])

• “He’s a man that’s sticking with the values that he has when everything around him is saying the opposite of what he believes.”
  – Wagner Moura ([07:42])

• “He never spoon-feeds the audience with answers.”
  – Wagner Moura ([13:04])

• “Being a father is the most important part of my own life… He has to be stoic…to protect that boy.”
  – Wagner Moura ([14:36])

• “She just brings herself to the character…she kept everything alive. This can go anywhere.”
  – Wagner Moura ([17:37–18:26])

• “The notion of comedy in a film is not something you should provoke…she simply is funny.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([18:26])

• “This became a phenomenon. It became an urban legend. That’s how urban legends begin. That’s how they’re born.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([20:07])

• “Films, movies are part of time. They’re like time stamps for our lives.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([22:16])

• “This is a film about memory also, and about the lack of memory.”
  – Wagner Moura ([23:28])

• “He made over 200 films…he was the most loving, crazy German I’ve ever met in my life.”
  – Kleber Mendonça Filho ([24:43])

Important Segment Timestamps

• 03:21 – Recife as storytelling backdrop
• 05:08 – Moura on acting in Portuguese
• 06:18 – Carnival and Brazilian culture
• 07:42 – Who is Marcelo? (protagonist)
• 09:03 – Art under Bolsonaro; censored film Marigela
• 13:35 – Marcelo’s drive as a father
• 15:11 – Dona Sebastiana’s refuge: found family
• 19:17 – The surreal “hairy leg” scene
• 21:43 – The role of “Jaws” in the story
• 23:16 – Ambiguity and the film’s conclusion
• 24:33 – Remembering Udo Kier
• 25:59 – NY Film Critics Circle awards

Tone & Language

The conversation is warm, intellectually curious, and tinged with both personal reflection and political urgency. Both Filho and Moura are candid about the personal stakes of creating political art, proud of their Brazilian roots, and sensitive to the nuances and ambiguities of both history and film. Their camaraderie and mutual respect come through, as does their belief in cinema as an art that both entertains and testifies, especially in times of repression.

This episode is a must-listen for cinephiles, lovers of political drama, and anyone interested in the intersection of art, memory, and resistance.