Neon releases trailer for The Secret Agent, Brazil's Oscar submission

Neon on Thursday released the first trailer for The Secret Agent, a historical political thriller written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho that stars Wagner Moura and will open in North America this fall. The film, which premiered on the festival circuit this year and won multiple prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, is scheduled to appear in New York on November 26 and in Los Angeles on December 5, Neon said. Brazil has selected the film as its official submission for the Best International Feature Film race at next year’s Academy Awards.

Set in Recife during Carnival week in 1977, The Secret Agent follows Marcelo, a widower and technology researcher played by Moura, who arrives in the city hoping to reunite with his young son but soon finds himself hunted amid the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship. The film’s synopsis states that Marcelo becomes “an unwitting target in the heart of the dictatorship’s political maelstrom” and, with the help of a mysterious woman named Elza, works with members of an underground resistance to try to escape the country.

The cast includes Maria Fernanda Cândido as Elza, Gabriel Leone, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, Robério...