Brazil, 1977. A left-leaning academic and technology expert flees a powerful enemy, returning to the place of his birth – the state of Pernambuco, in northeast Brazil – under the assumed name of Marcelo. He’s hoping to escape with his young son, but the city of Recife is even wilder than usual, the carnival is in full swing, the body count is mounting, and the sharks (both literal and metaphorical) are circling.

The fourth fiction feature from Kleber Mendonça Filho is a sweat-saturated riot of a movie: a dual-timeline thriller powered by the kind of anarchic, erratic energy that you would expect to find at the end of a two-day bender.

Tonally, “The Secret Agent” is an unexpected blend of the bloody gusto of Filho’s 2019 film “Bacurau” and the more thoughtful approach of the director’s most recent picture, the documentary “Pictures Of Ghosts”, with its fascination with archives, oral histories and the cinemas that once stood in the towns, and cities of Brazil.

Wendy Ide, Screen Daily