I’m Still Here (15)
Directed by Walter Salles

 
THE story of Brazil’s “desaparecidos,” those taken by the military dictatorship, is seen through the eyes of those left behind and in particular a bourgeois wife and mother of five in Walter Salles quietly profound and moving Oscar-nominated drama based on real events. 

It is driven by a remarkable and tour-de-force performance by renowned Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva whose life was shattered when her husband Rubens (Selton Mello), a dissident and former congressman, was snatched from his home in 1971. 

Seven years in the making, it is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir and it is a very personal film as Salles knew the Paiva family and was friends with the children when he was 13.  

The first part of the film, which is set in Rio de Janeiro in 1970, depicts their idyllic family life. Drenched in sunlight, they entertain friends and relatives, enjoy days out on the nearby beach, sing, dance and listen to music in a show of quiet resistance to the regime which, in the background, is cracking down on leftist political groups and anyone else who defied or criticised them.

The second part takes a darker turn as armed men invade Eunice’s home apprehend Rubens while keeping the rest of the family holed up in the house. They are all powerless to act and it is frightening. The tension and fear intensifies when Eunice and one of her daughters are taken in for interrogation where they are bullied and threatened. 

This is a film about reinvention, resilience and collective survival. When Rubens fails to return Eunice transforms from a wife — and now a single mother — into a human rights lawyer and activist working relentlessly to uncover what happened to him while maintaining family stability. 

She also refused to be seen as a victim crippled by loss. She and the kids smiled defiantly in press photos despite being asked to look sad.   

She was an extraordinary woman and Torres does her proud, and rightly has been nominated for an Oscar. She is only the second Brazilian actress to achieve this. Her real-life mother Fernanda Montenegro, who plays Eunice in her eighties, was the first for Salles’ Central Station (1998). 

While this film portrays an important part of Brazil’s hidden history, it also resonates with the current global political climate and the rise of far-right groups and authoritarian governments around the world. 

In cinemas February 21.