In Lisbon to participate in a special screening of the recently released Brazilian film The Secret Agentby Kleber Mendonça Filho, the actor Wagner Moura held a press conference this Friday afternoon, November 7th, at Cinema Nimas. The space is one of those hosting the LEFFEST 2025 (Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival) program, which begins this Friday with a cycle dedicated to the renowned actor.
In the conversation with journalists, moderated by the producer Paulo Brancodirector of the festival that screens the film, Wagner Moura, who plays the protagonist of Mendonça Filho’s new feature film, spoke for almost an hour about production, politics and the good moment in Brazilian cinema.
“Culture, art, go hand in hand with democracy. The more democratic the government is, the more it will understand that culture is important and, today, in Brazil, we are living in a very good time — or, at least, much better than between 2018 and 2022. Brazilian cinema is in a good moment as Brazilian democracy is going through a good moment. They are interconnected things”, said the actor in response to DN.
One of the main actors in Brazil and internationally recognized for his participation in productions such as Narcos, Sergio e Civil warMoura, in The Secret Agentreturns to acting in Brazilian productions after 12 years. During this period, he achieved the highly praised Marighellaa film whose release faced constraints and successive delays, at a time when the country, then governed by Jair Bolsonaro, had the audiovisual sector practically paralyzed.
“The Secret Agent is born from that moment: from my and Kleber’s perplexity [Mendonça Filho] given what we are experiencing in Bolsonarism. The persecution of films, the story of Marighella… The question was: ‘What to do? How do you react as an artist to what you do?’ I think the artist is stronger with what he does than with what he says. And I’m an artist who talks a lot, But what we do is that we have a lot of power. So much so that any fascist regime wants to end art, artists, universities, journalism”, highlighted the actor, trained in journalism in Salvador, Bahia, the city where he was born.