Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, one of the more buzzy features to debut in Competition this year in Cannes, has been acquired by Mubi.
The streamer has picked up the film for the UK, Ireland, India, and Latin America, excluding Brazil.
The Secret Agent is led by Wagner Moura and also stars Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, and Hermila Guedes. The film was produced by Emilie Lesclaux. Co-producers include Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz, Fionnuala Jamison, Olivier Barbier, Leontine Petit, Erik Glijnis, Fred Burke, and Sol Bondy.
The film’s synopsis reads: Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.
Filho is best known for his last fiction feature, Bacurau, which debuted in competition at Cannes in 2018 and won the Jury Prize. His last feature was Retratos Fantasmas, a documentary that debuted at Cannes in 2023.
The deal for The Secret Agent was negotiated between MUBI and mk2, who are handling international sales. Mubi has been busy this year in Cannes. Last week, we announced the company had locked a deal on Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes title Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. They will release that film in North America, Latin America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Cannes ends on Saturday.