“The Secret Agent,” a Brazilian feature shortlisted for the Oscars, is all about ordinary people. It follows an unassuming scientist and widowed father who becomes a target of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s — not because he is an activist or revolutionary, but because he stands up to a business owner with ties to the regime.
“He’s in danger simply for being who he is, for holding the values he holds,” star Wagner Moura told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “That’s how authoritarianism works everywhere.”
