CW: Spoilers for The Secret Agent.

Writer and podcaster Gus Lanzetta joins us from São Paulo for a deep dive into two recent works of the great Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho.

We explore how the northeastern coastal town of Recife serves as a lifelong muse for the director, starting with his 2023 personal "audio-visual essay," Pictures of Ghosts, which maps the fading movie palaces of his youth.

That film sets the stage for his newest period piece, The Secret Agent, a “hangout thriller” set in 1977 starring Wagner Moura as a man on the run in Recife during the military dictatorship. Gus helps decode the local nuances for the non-Brazilians in the audience, explaining the historical "mischief" the film depicts, its powerful themes of memory, family and resistance and why Kleber is a director you just have to trust.

Plus: is Toronto’s Matt Johnson Canada’s answer to Kleber?

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Trailer for Pictures of Ghosts (Retratos Fantasmas - Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2023)

North American trailer #1 for The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto - Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2023)