“The Secret Agent” in the Streets of Brazil!
São Paulo, Jan 31 (EFE).- By Ailén Desirée Montes
The streets of the Brazilian city of Recife have turned into an open-air film set thanks to “The Secret Agent,” the four-time Oscar-nominated feature that has sparked a surge in film tourism, drawing visitors to the locations immortalized in the movie.
Touching the cold marble walls of the historic Cine São Luiz, walking down the alley where a wounded character fled leaving a trail of blood, or having a drink at the bar where hired killers once stalked their target, groups of up to 30 people now gather at iconic spots across the capital of Pernambuco to experience, if only briefly, life inside the film.
For director Kleber Mendonça Filho, a Recife native, the city itself “is another character” in the story, one that helps recover and preserve the urban memory of the northeastern Brazilian metropolis of around 1.5 million people.
The tour was created by Roberto Tavares, owner of Tavares Turismo, who designed a four-kilometer route that takes visitors through the crime drama’s key settings, where fiction intertwines with history.
Among them is the Cine São Luiz, a central location in the film’s plot.
The movie’s international success has had a direct local impact.
Two Golden Globe wins and four Oscar nominations drew more than 1.5 million Brazilians to theaters, fueling interest in Recife as a film destination.
“People from all over Brazil ask whether the tour will be available when they visit,” Tavares said, adding that it is especially gratifying to see local residents becoming “interested in their own history.”
“During the tour, you often hear people say, ‘I walk past here every day and didn’t know this place had so much history,’” he said.
Four hours between fiction and reality The three- to four-hour tour begins at a small family-run shop selling yerba mate-based drinks, “where the villain Vilmar, played by Kaiony Venâncio, hides after a shootout,” said Tavares, who admits he has watched the film 17 times.
The shop owner, who appears in the film, welcomes visitors with a special drink inspired by the movie.
Outside a historic post office building, whose architecture seems frozen in time, the group revisits a darker chapter of Brazil’s past. During the military dictatorship, private correspondence was routinely intercepted, a practice depicted in the film.
“Some letters were opened, and if they contained relevant information, they were kept. Many were never delivered,” Tavares said.
Around a quarter of the film was shot at Ginásio Pernambucano, a more than 200-year-old school that opened its doors for the tour. In the movie, it served as the office where Marcelo, played by Wagner Moura, worked while searching for documents related to his mother.
Cine São Luiz, the tour’s grand finale Another stop that draws particular attention is Parque 13 de Maio, linked to the local urban legend of the “hairy leg,” a mythical figure said to have attacked passersby at night during the dictatorship.
The tour culminates at the Cine São Luiz, identified by its white facade and red lettering. Today, the cinema opens not only its public spaces and screening rooms but also the apartments that once housed technicians from other parts of Brazil.
“For all these reasons, the film is very much a reflection of Recife,” Tavares said, noting he was deeply moved the first time he saw it. “You can feel the city in the way people speak, in the dialogues, the clothes, the cars, the bridges and the music.” EFE adm-sk
