I’m Still Here, Brazilian director Walter Salles’ first feature film in over a decade, explores a dark period in his nation’s history. Recently awarded the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Salles’ fleshes out the human cost of a brutal military dictatorship characterized by extensive human rights abuses, institutionalized torture, and the forced disappearances of its opponents. One of the most well-known victims of the regime was Rubens Paiva, a former congressman active in the underground resistance. Featuring a tour-de-force performance from Fernanda Torress, the film examines the devastating effect his abduction has on his family while shedding light on the incongruous reality of trying to make a life under the thumb of a terrifyingly repressive regime.
That incongruity is hinted at early on, as the family enjoys a day at the beach. Running along the beautiful Rio de Janeiro shoreline, surrounded by gorgeous mountains, the Paiva family is the picture of health and good humour, resembling something akin to a seventies advertisement for sunscreen scored to the evocative sounds of Brazilian funk artist Erasmo Carlos. The cracks in this utopian façade are soon revealed, however, when eldest sister Vera (Valentina Herszage) and her friends are pulled over by a military roadblock and subjected to an invasive and aggressive search. The moment is jarring, and will unfortunately prove to be just the tip of the iceberg for this tight-knit family.
Salles was acquainted with the Paivas as a child, and his familiarity with this place and time is more than evident as he effortlessly roots the audience in their world. Rubens (Selton Mello) lovingly presides over his energetic household, adored by his children and still madly in love with his devoted wife Eunice (Torres). It’s the kind of house where you’re just as likely to find yourself in a spirited political debate as a spontaneous dance party. The kind of house in which many of us might have wished to have grown up. Despite his entreaties to his children to be careful, it is clear that Rubens himself is still active in the resistance, taking surreptitious late night phone calls and passing mysterious letters and packages, all the while hiding his activities from his family for their own protection.
One day, having caught the military’s attention, a trio of goons show up at the door to escort him to a “deposition” at an undisclosed location. Soon enough they would also take custody of Eunice and their daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) as armed enforcers stand guard over the rest of the children. It’s hardly a spoiler (or surprising to anyone with a basic grasp of history), that Rubens’ family never saw him again, or that his body has never been found. In the days and months following that first fateful day, we experience the fallout from Eunice’s perspective. Imprisoned and “interrogated” for twelve days herself, her experience goes a long way to unshrouding the mystery that surrounds the vast majority of such forced disappearances.
Torres’ performance is peerless (apologies to the incredibly talented Demi Moore and Mikey Madison) as she subtly projects Eunice’s struggle to protect her family and fight for justice. Intelligent, loving, gentle, and relentless in her pursuit of the truth, it is fascinating to behold Eunice Paiva as she negotiates the treacherous terrain in which she finds herself. Fiercely protective of her family and rarely reactionary, Eunice swallows her considerable grief and plays the long game, always observing and evaluating with careful consideration and intelligence. That quiet consistency renders her few moments of outward vulnerability and rage all the more powerful. One of the most powerful and revealing scenes in the film finds Eunice sitting among her family at a local ice cream shop. Grappling with unimaginable grief that she hides even from her own children, her eyes wander to the people that surround them. Young couples laugh and flirt, children play – each of them simply trying to grasp whatever moments of joy and levity that they can, doing their best to ignore the darkness lurking just around the corner. It’s a harrowing moment, and one that hits all too close to home.
I’m Still Here is currently in screening in cinemas across North America.
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