Kleber Mendonça Filho announces 1930s film with Wagner Moura

By Elena Vasquez

On Sunday the 8th, Kleber Mendonça Filho announced O correspondente estrangeiro, a feature set in the 1930s with Wagner Moura as its protagonist.

At the Sunday press conference during the opening of the 36º Cine Ceará — Festival Ibero-Americano de Cinema in Fortaleza, Mendonça Filho detailed the project. He was honored there alongside producer Emilie Lesclaux.

Moura's casting repeats the director's partnership with the actor from O agente secreto (2025).

What does “O correspondente estrangeiro” concern?

Mendonça Filho did not disclose a detailed plot for the new film. He previously suggested it could address German arrivals in Recife during the Vargas government. The story could also examine the spread of Nazi propaganda in the region.

The title refers to a 1940 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The announcement gave no further explanation of that reference. The relationship between the two titles remains open.

Three elements are already public: the 1930s setting, the proposed Nazi-propaganda story and the Hitchcock title connection. The announcement establishes a decade, a lead performer and a Hitchcock title reference, while the proposed Recife history remains provisional rather than confirmed plot.

How will Mendonça Filho research the 1930s?

Mendonça Filho said the screenplay requires “intensive research.” He has no personal memories of the decade. He has assembled a pile of 14 books to investigate the period.

The 14-book pile gives the announcement its clearest numerical measure of preparation. That research phase is now concrete, even though the story remains undefined.

The books make the research burden measurable: context must come from them rather than from personal memory. His stated preparation joins two clear conditions: no personal memories of the decade and 14 books assembled for investigation, giving the screenplay a defined research phase.

What will the archive documentary cover?

Beyond the feature, Mendonça Filho is working on an archive documentary. The film focuses on the 1990s in Recife. He described that decade as formative for his personal and artistic trajectory. He compared the documentary project's structure with Retratos fantasmas (2023).

Mendonça Filho said he was “excited” about Brazil's archive preservation. He also cited the possibility of working with those materials to register the period.

The two projects place research and memory on opposite sides of his current work: one concerns a decade he says he cannot remember, the other a period he called formative. The documentary combines autobiography with a practical concern: preserving and working with Brazil's archival record to register Recife's formative 1990s through a new film project.

What remains unresolved?

The announcement settles the feature's period, lead actor and title reference. It leaves the narrative unresolved. The proposed German arrivals under Vargas and Nazi propaganda remain possible subjects.

For O correspondente estrangeiro, Mendonça Filho's next step is the research he says the screenplay requires. His 14 books currently form the basis of that effort. His own comments identify research as the next milestone before the feature acquires a defined narrative.

The feature's proposed German arrivals, Nazi propaganda and Hitchcock reference will remain provisional until the 14-book research process yields a more specific narrative on screen.