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My Name is Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho and I wrote and directed \u201cThe Secret Agent.\u201d This sequence takes place in 1977 and it comes quite late in the film. I kind of knew it would be an important sequence for \u201cThe Secret Agent,\u201d because this is where we finally get to spend some time with the people who are staying at Sebastiana\u2019s building, and it would always be a challenging sequence from the point of view of writing and also of shooting. So we have Isab\u00e9l Zuaa playing Tereza Vict\u00f3ria. We have Lic\u00ednio Janu\u00e1rio, who plays her husband. Hermila Guedes plays Claudia. Jo\u00e3o Vitor Silva plays Haroldo. T\u00e2nia Maria, of course, who\u2019s playing Dona Sebastiana. We have Lula Terra and also Gal, who\u2019s asleep, and we have Robson, who plays Cl\u00f3vis. The whole sequence was incredibly challenging because we had one night. This is a night shoot. We shot from 7 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. and my biggest concern was that I wouldn\u2019t be able to do justice to each and every character and to honor them, because I love each and every one of these characters. And also these actors. And with two cameras, anamorphic Panavision lenses, three mics, about 30 crew, three dogs, a cat. We had a lot to get done, not only in terms of the shots, but also dramatically because the sequence begins very light hearted and then it moves towards a change in the atmosphere in the room. But the whole sequence, I think, works because of the great acting and also because of quite a lot of affection that comes through in the text. Wagner\u2019s character, he takes a \u201cwhy not, what the hell\u201d attitude towards hiding his name. He just reveals who he is and that has an effect on his friends. Lic\u00ednio always very skeptical as Antonio, Tereza Vict\u00f3ria\u2019s husband in the film. They are from Angola. And slowly we bring new layers of meaning in terms of what it means to be getting by in an authoritarian regime, in a situation where you\u2019re under threat. [TELEPHONE RINGING] The telephone, the way it rings, we mixed it a little louder than it would probably sound. Nadia Comaneci, the great Romanian gymnast, is in the background there with Wagner. And this is when Sebastiana truly shows how much she cares for these people. She actually says, I don\u2019t want you to feel sad. Let me show you my little museum. And this moment, I think, it really opens up a new window into the film because we now realize that Sebastiana herself, she has a history in another country, and she has gone through a lot in life, much like everybody else in the film and much like all these characters. I never really wanted to do this sequence handheld. I always thought that it should be exactly the way it looks: very precise shots, well composed. I really wanted the actors and the characters to live within the frame without any extra energy coming from the camera itself and the Panavision aspect ratio, really, I think it\u2019s amazing to get people into the frame. And Gal, little Gal, she was supposed to have a few lines in the film, but she was so sleepy and I thought, let\u2019s just let her sleep. And then at some point I asked Evgenia, let\u2019s get a few shots of her actually sleeping. And sure enough, when we were editing the sequence, we had a look at her sleeping, and I think it\u2019s a beautiful way to end the sequence. She\u2019s actually sleeping and maybe dreaming of a better Brazil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n