Directing

Kleber Mendonça Filho

Born November 22, 1968 · Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil (age 57)

Kleber Mendonça Filho (born November 22, 1968) is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter and producer. With a degree in Journalism from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Kleber Mendonça Filho began his career as a film critic and journalist. As a director, he experimented with fiction, documentary, and video clips in the 1990s. He migrated from video to digital and 35 mm film in the 2000s. …

Known For

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent · 2025

The Secret Agent

MovieThrillerDrama

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

Bacurau

Bacurau · 2019

MovieMysteryWestern

Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.

Travelling

Travelling · 1991

MovieDocumentary

Early experiments with VHS. Metros kinda look the same.

Décimo Segundo

Décimo Segundo · 2007

Décimo Segundo

Aquarius

Aquarius · 2016

Clara, a vibrant former music critic and widow with flowing tresses is the only remaining apartment owner in a beautiful older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with as she thwarts the builders plans to kick her out of the apartment.

The Little Cotton Girl

The Little Cotton Girl · 2002

The Little Cotton Girl

The urban legend of the "cotton girl." The dead girl appeared in the bathrooms of schools to terrorize children.

Caged In

Caged In · 1997

MovieDramaThriller

Middle class man surrounded by fear and paranoia become prisoner of his own world.

Green Vinyl

Green Vinyl · 2004

MovieDramaHorror

A mother gives her daughter a box full of old, coloured little vinyl records. The daughter may listen to them, but she should never, ever, play the green one.

Filmography

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The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent · 2025

The Secret Agent

MovieThrillerDrama

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

Director

Bacurau

Bacurau · 2019

MovieMysteryWestern

Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.

Director

Travelling

Travelling · 1991

MovieDocumentary

Early experiments with VHS. Metros kinda look the same.

Director

Décimo Segundo

Décimo Segundo · 2007

Décimo Segundo

Sound Editor

Aquarius

Aquarius · 2016

Clara, a vibrant former music critic and widow with flowing tresses is the only remaining apartment owner in a beautiful older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with as she thwarts the builders plans to kick her out of the apartment.

Director

The Little Cotton Girl

The Little Cotton Girl · 2002

The Little Cotton Girl

The urban legend of the "cotton girl." The dead girl appeared in the bathrooms of schools to terrorize children.

Director

Caged In

Caged In · 1997

MovieDramaThriller

Middle class man surrounded by fear and paranoia become prisoner of his own world.

Director

Green Vinyl

Green Vinyl · 2004

MovieDramaHorror

A mother gives her daughter a box full of old, coloured little vinyl records. The daughter may listen to them, but she should never, ever, play the green one.

Director

Neighboring Sounds

Neighboring Sounds · 2012

Neighboring Sounds

MovieThrillerDrama

An independent private security firm arrives at a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil.

Director

Pictures of Ghosts

Pictures of Ghosts · 2023

Pictures of Ghosts

MovieDocumentary

Downtown Recife’s classic movie palaces from the 20th century are mostly gone. That city area is now an archaeological site of sorts that reveals aspects of life in society which have been lost. And that’s just part of the story.

Sound Designer

Homem de Projeção

Homem de Projeção · 1992

Homem de Projeção

MovieDocumentary

Short documentary about Cine Art Palácio in Recife-PE, Brazil.

Director

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano · 2011

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

MovieThrillerHorror

Flavio Danillo is a personal trainer whose students attend him at the gym. At home, Flavio works his body into a state of decay. Suddenly, his body no longer responds his mind taking over control.

Producer

South of Tehran

South of Tehran · 2026

South of Tehran

MovieDocumentary

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi recalls the cinephilia of his youth from the surreal remove of the 2025 New York Film Festival. This is the first film in an annual initiative titled NYFF Encounters, a commissioning program that invites one filmmaker with a film in the New York Film Festival to create an original short during the course of the festival. Selected by the festival’s Artistic Director and programming team, the participating filmmaker will produce a short film shot at least in part at NYFF.

Director

Keychain

Keychain · 1995

A woman leaves her apartment to go pick up a newspaper, opening and closing a multiple of locks on her way out and back.

Director

Critic

MovieDocumentary

Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.

Director

Sleep with Your Eyes Open

Sleep with Your Eyes Open · 2024

Sleep with Your Eyes Open

MovieDramaComedy

A coastal city in Brazil. Kai arrives from Taiwan for holidays with a broken heart. A broken air conditioner sends her into Fu Ang’s umbrella store. He could become a friend, but the rainy season doesn't arrive and his shop disappears. While looking for Fu Ang, Kai discovers the story of Xiaoxin and a group of Chinese workers in a posh skyscraper. Kai finds herself strangely mirrored in Xiaoxin’s tale.

Producer

Heartless

Heartless · 2024

Summer 1996, north-east coast of Brazil. Tamara is enjoying her last weeks at the fishing village she lives in before departing to Brasilia for her studies. One day, she hears about a teenager nicknamed Heartless after a scar she has on her chest. Over the course of the summer, Tamara feels a growing attraction for this mysterious girl.

Producer

Recife, Cidade Roubada

Recife, Cidade Roubada · 2014

Recife, Cidade Roubada

MovieDocumentary

ele mesmo

Casa de Imagem

Casa de Imagem · 1992

MovieDocumentary

Director

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

Friday Night, Saturday Morning · 2006

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

MovieDramaRomance

A small-scale romantic love story, shot with a digital camera in black & white and in a documentary style. We follow the conversation between two lovers, each on a different side of the world; he is in Recife, she is in Kyiv. On one side is dark, on the other light, but both experience the same emotions and hence feel nearness and contact.

Director

Bacurau no Mapa

Bacurau no Mapa · 2019

Bacurau no Mapa

MovieDocumentary

Behind the scenes of Bacurau (2019)'s shooting and pre-production. With exclusive images, directors Kléber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles show how they made the film an audience and critical success.

Director

Jogo sem Gandula

Jogo sem Gandula · 2011

Jogo sem Gandula

A not very good little digital still camera, our little neighbours and a football. Home movie.

Director

Eletrodoméstica

Eletrodoméstica · 2005

Eletrodoméstica

MovieComedyDrama

A middle-class family living in a house filled with superfluous electronic appliances see the arrival of a new item, a 29" TV-set.

Director

Passages: Travelling In and Out of Film Through Brazilian Geography

Passages: Travelling In and Out of Film Through Brazilian Geography · 2019

Passages: Travelling In and Out of Film Through Brazilian Geography

MovieDocumentary

Passages showcases Brazilian films in which the utilisation of artforms and media such as literature, painting, theatre, music, photography, radio and television, functions as a 'passage' to political and social reality.

Delegado

Delegado · 2026

SeriesDramaComedy

Felipe is embarking on his long-awaited career as a police chief in Recife. Faced with the violent and unethical reality of his job, the young man must resort to unconventional methods to uphold his ideal of justice.

Producer