His list of favorite films includes Black God White Devil by Glauber Rocha, Scum by Alan Clarke and Blockade by Sergei Loznitsa.

An emblematic filmmaker from Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho took classes in journalism before becoming a film critic and programmer. From 1990 onwards, he signed short experimental videos with an inventive eye. In the 2000s, he created short films such as the fantastical film-novel Vinil Verde (presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2005) and Recife Frio (a 2009 mockumentary about the curious cooling of the climate). He then started making feature-length fiction films, with Neighbouring Sounds (2012), Aquarius (in official selection at Cannes in 2016), and Bacurau (Jury Prize at the 2019 Cannes Festival). An independent author-producer, Mendonça Filho affirms the political specificity of his gaze, probing the impact of global capitalism on his native region. Fuelled by an original and non-naturalist cinephilia, his work draws inspiration from the social movement of Cinema Novo and the revival of the genre film, such as burlesque, soap opera, the western, or Carpenter-style chimeric horror. In 2023, his documentary Pictures of Ghosts was presented at Cannes in the Séances spéciales section.

In 2025, his film The Secret Agent earned him the Best Director prize at Cannes, while Wagner Moura received the Best Actor award for his performance.

Watch his favorites on LaCinetek: www.lacinetek.com/fr-en/director-list/kleber-mendonca-filho-45

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