Marighella

Marighella (2021) is a Brazilian historical drama you can watch online on iFILM. The directing debut of actor Wagner Moura (Narcos) follows Carlos Marighella — poet, congressman and Black revolutionary who took up arms against the generals.

It's the late 1960s, and Brazil is run by a military regime built on censorship, secret prisons and the torture of dissenters. The army had seized power back in 1964 with quiet backing from Washington, and by now the opposition is frightened and fractured. Played by musician Seu Jorge, Marighella slips underground and assembles an armed cell — bank robberies, audacious strikes meant to shake the regime and wake a silenced country. To do it he leaves his wife and son behind and becomes the state's most wanted man. Bruno Gagliasso and Adriana Esteves round out the cast.

Moura skips the heroic monument and shoots something raw and almost physical instead — 155 minutes of handheld camera, sweat and blood. The screenplay draws on journalist Mário Magalhães's biography and doesn't dodge the hard questions about the price of violent resistance. The film sat on the shelf for years amid Brazil's political climate, which only makes it more worth seeing what unsettled the censors. Stream Marighella (2021) online on iFILM.