Brazil, 1977, military dictatorship, carnival. "Secret Agent"

Police check documents and extort cigarettes, without looking too closely inside. Wagner Moura (who also has the most complex gaze in the entire film) plays a man who never planned to be a hero.

The second fiddle in the ensemble of human madness is played by Dona Sebastiana (80-year-old Tânia Maria, for whom this is only her second film role). She hides fugitives in her house, calls them "enemies she chose herself," and continues living as if nothing is happening.

The director creates a slow, two-and-a-half-hour immersion into an era where every day could be the last.

There are many gripping details here, coming together into a poignant story about how authoritarian power destroys lives, and human memory refuses to forget them.