The Secret Agent – a dark horse contender at this year’s Academy Awards – spins the freewheeling tale of a dissident scientist in 1970s Brazil. Kleber Mendonca Filho’s film features a veritable rogues’ gallery of supporting characters, from a sleazy police chief to a satanic tailor to a disembodied zombie limb called Hairy Leg that escapes the ziplock bag in the evidence room and proceeds to storm the local hook-up park. The revellers have barely begun their illicit carousing when in hops Hairy Leg to sour the mood and violently break up the party. This should be their big night, their indulgent happy time. Now it’s been ruined by an animated appendage that’s come to teach them all a hard lesson.
Hairy Leg plays a minor, mischievous role in The Secret Agent, but I’m seeing it as the unofficial mascot of this awards race, the gremlin in the works of the well-oiled machine as the nominees and presenters try to keep on track, stay on script and avoid causing any offence. These people would prefer to avoid politics and would rather not mention Donald Trump by name and yet they can’t quite ignore the persistent noises off. Sooner or later, hey presto, there’s Hairy Leg in the form of another grisly real-world news story that demands their response, or at least an expression of sympathy. There’s no running from politics, it seems, not even on Oscar night. It’s the star player of many of this year’s Best Picture nominees and is about to pogo onstage whether the Academy likes it or not.
