There’s a tangle of weird storylines on the periphery of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” however perhaps none as unusual because the disembodied bushy leg that pops up all through, ultimately coming to life to stalk the streets of Recife. It’s an odd, fantastical second in what’s in any other case a really grounded moviehowever for Mendonça, it’s additionally deeply linked to his personal childhood.
Explaining the origins of the leg in a brand new featurette that IndieWire completely premieres, Mendonça stated he remembered studying tales about bushy, disembodied legs whereas rising up in fascist Brazil throughout the Seventies. Years later, he would uncover that these tales had been an city legend created by a journalist to speak about police brutality and homophobia.
“If you look again to the newspapers within the archives, yow will discover the unique articles in regards to the bushy leg, and so they had been written with a straight face,” Mendonça stated. “So it was virtually like a police article, however the bushy leg could be the perpetrator of violent acts, and that turned a sensation.”
Within the featurette, Mendonça spoke with “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro about creating the leg within the movie, and making a film that used the instruments of worldwide cinema whereas remaining closely rooted in a Brazilian context.
“Once I see your motion pictures, I see this positively lovely mixing of imaginations,” del Toro advised Mendonça. “It very a lot is cinema.”
To create the leg seen in “The Secret Agent,” Mendonça contracted the Dutch cease movement animation studio Holy Movement to work on the movie. The studio despatched a number of assessments earlier than they nailed Mendonça’s desired look — for the leg to be slimy, disgusting, and really bushy.
“I actually love the best way it strikes, as a result of the very first thing many individuals recommended was ‘do it in CGI,’” Mendonça stated. “It was an awesome expertise. I actually love when movies depart actuality, and so they go into some new mode. Simply because it’s the state of our minds.”
“The Secret Agent” acquired 4 nominations on the 2026 Oscars, the place it’s going to compete for Finest Image, Finest Actor, Finest Casting, and Finest Worldwide Function Movie.
Watch the total dialog between Mendonça and del Toro, an IndieWire unique, beneath.
