I’m Still Here is the poignant and tragic story of Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), a mother of five. As she navigates her husband’s disappearance, and struggles to find hope in the darkness.
It’s 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, six years deep into Brazil’s military dictatorship. We see the vibrant energy of Brazilian life — teenagers playing volleyball on the beach, girls tanning under the scorching sun gossiping about boys. As waves crash in the background, they wear bright smiles and laughter fills the air.
Military helicopters cutting through the serene blue sky and a military blockade expose that life under an imposing military presence will never be the same. The growing political turmoil is worrisome, even more so for Eunice’s husband Rubens (Selton Mello), a former congressman, who is secretly aiding the underground opposition of the military regime.
The handheld cinematography immerses the audience in the family, who I grew empathetic towards very shortly after I was introduced to them in the film.
When a group of armed men enter their house, taking away Rubens, he understands what’s happening and complies. Little does Eunice know, this would be the last time she kisses her husband goodbye.
Eunice is taken for questioning, and so is her daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski). Handcuffed and covered in black hoods, they’re treated like criminals. Arrested and tortured for 12 days, Eunice returns home scrawny and bruised. Embracing what is left — her children.
The film shows Eunice’s powerful perseverance in the face of hardship and the family learning to move forward in Ruben’s absence. It uses memory and nostalgia to juxtapose the family’s current situation. Accompanied by Warren Ellis’ piano score, it brings upon a sense of solitude and grief.
We are transported to two more periods. 25 years after Ruben Paiva’s forced disappearance, and to 2014. The now 85-year-old Eunice Paiva (played by Torres’ mother Fernanda Montenegro) is at a family gathering. Despite living under Brazil’s once anti-humanitarian rule, the Paivas grow stronger and bigger. It shows an incredible sense of unity. Governments can fall, but the people live on.
I’m Still Here is not a political drama. It could’ve provided us with the ins and outs of Brazil’s dark history, but it didn’t. It makes sense for director Walter Salles to tell the story of the Paivas, as he grew up with them. It naturally comes with personal sentiment, but he masterfully portrays the story with melancholy and optimism. The story could’ve easily been an excessive melodrama, weaponizing their tragedy for a few tears, which would’ve been quite insensitive, however not rare in films handling topics like this.
This is where the film succeeds. Walles understood the need to find the light, just like the Paivas did. Through the eyes of Eunice, we see a woman who couldn’t and didn’t give up. The film’s beating pulse is not in her search for her disappeared husband but in the determination to find hope through thick and thin.
Fernanda Torres is the heart of the film, delivering a restrained and layered performance. Torres won the Golden Globes and has received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Brazilians online have been busy rallying behind her performance for months, while their connection towards the story’s legacy and Torres herself is obvious and understandable, the merit in her performance deservingly grants the attention. Her mother Fernanda Montenegro was the first Brazilian actress to be nominated in 1999 for Walter Salles’ Central Station, and Torres is the second.
Also nominated for Best Picture and Best International Feature, I’m Still Here opens in Canadian cinemas on Jan. 31.
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