This Tuesday (29), the Brazilian film The Secret Agent received nominations for the Gotham Film Awardsan award that recognizes independent cinema. The film directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho was nominated for original screenplay and also for best performance for Wagner Moura.
The nominations add to a list of awards that the film, which premieres in Brazil on November 6thhas already been making strides and conquering on international soil. In May, he received the best director and best actor awards at the Cannes Film Festivalone of the most important awards in world cinema.
The expectation is that the film, which was chosen by the Brazilian Cinema Academy to be Brazil’s representative at the Oscars next year, can repeat the feat of I’m Still Hereby Walter Salles, who this year was chosen as the best international film at the biggest cinema awards.
But this is still a long way to go, admitted Wagner Moura, in a press conference held this afternoon (28) in the capital of São Paulo.
“We’re doing everything right, but I think we have to stay calm and breathe. But when we start to get these indications from other awards shows like Gotham, then I start to say that we have a path that is looking more real than it was two weeks ago,” he said.
While this nomination does not arrive, director Kleber Mendonça’s biggest objective is to win over the Brazilian public and attract them to the cinemas, especially younger people.
“I want the film to be seen by a large audience in Brazil, but I have a very special desire for this film to be discovered by very young people – like students, boys and girls – who go to the cinema and see a Brazilian film that tells Brazilian history. Maybe these young people can discover something new, some interesting point of view about our country”, highlighted the director.
Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent tells the story of Marcelo, played by Moura, a man who returns to Recife in search of his son and to escape a mysterious past. The entire film is set in the 70s, during the military dictatorship.
And this is one of the periods in Brazil’s history that the director hopes young people get to know even more.
“I left a screening of the film I’m Still Herein Recife, and in front of me came two very young girls who told each other that they didn’t know that the military regime had been as bad as it was. So, I think these are small pieces of information, small feelings, that a film, especially a Brazilian film, can bring about our country”, he stated.
Memory
The Secret Agent It begins with a return to the past, a search for memories and understandings. It not only shows Marcelo’s return to his family and home, but also presents a historical moment in the country that, according to the director, is always tried to be erased, but which continues to cause constant trauma and violence.
“Brazil is a country that has some issues with memory, it is a country that tends to forget a lot of things. I think that cinema is a very good instrument, because it is a good film, it catches your attention, entertains you and keeps you entertained, but it can also contain a lot of real information about the place where we live.”
For Marcelo’s interpreter, the search for these memories is a characteristic not only of The Secret Agentbut of national cinema, as a whole.
“Memory is important, because if we didn’t have, for example, the Amnesty Law, which was a law that erased Brazil’s memory, we wouldn’t have had the president we had, the one who was condemned [Jair Bolsonaro]. Memory is an important thing and not only for culture and cinema, but journalism, universities, society as a whole, have the function of preserving our memory so that we can grow as a country”, added the actor.
