Hairy leg in The Secret Agent is drawn from a real 1970s Recife legend

Collider reports that the hairy leg sequence in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s award-winning film The Secret Agent is based on an actual Recife urban legend that surfaced in the mid-1970s. The tale began in late 1975 in the Tiúma neighborhood of São Lourenço da Mata, where residents said a single disembodied leg tormented a house for about 20 days.

The story reached the local Diário de Pernambuco and radio station Reporter; as told by piauí magazine, host Geraldo Freire sent rookie reporter Jota Ferreira to cover it, and Ferreira later said the report was true — a prostitute in a local hospital had made such claims. Writer Raimundo Carrero also wrote about alleged attacks in Boa Viagem, helping the episode become a widely known Recife urban legend.

Local religious leaders and commentators tied the legend to Recife’s troubles in the late 1970s, including repression under the military regime and the catastrophic July 1975 flood, and noted that the leg’s alleged targets — prostitutes, minorities and young people — and its nocturnal attacks carried symbolic weight.

Key Topics

Culture, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Hairy Leg, Recife, Tiúma