AINDA ESTOU AQUI (I'M STILL HERE)
2024 | Dir. Walter Salles | 137 Minutes
"It's absolutely necessary to compensate the families and do the most important thing: clarify and judge all crimes committed during the dictatorship. Otherwise, they will continue to be committed with impunity."
In 1971, operatives of Brazil's military dictatorship take former congressman Rubens Paiva away from his home in Rio de Janeiro. In the aftermath, Rubens' wife Eunice does what she can to protect her children while investigating what happened to her husband.
Adapted from Marcelo Rubens Paiva's memoir of the same name, Walter Salles' I'm Still Here is a moving chronicle of one family's harrowing experiences under authoritarian oppression. The events of the film unfold naturally without obvious dramatic embellishment, presenting an unsettling narrative of a good husband and father abducted by unidentified men never to be seen in public again, a loving mother and her young daughter imprisoned and relentlessly questioned without just cause, a nurturing family doing everything in their power to somehow carry on. Salles' direction is outstanding, as is Fernanda Torres's performance as Eunice, portraying the true story as well as the hardships of a remarkable woman with care and nuance.
For its rather heavy subject matter, I'm Still Here is exceptionally well-paced. Early scenes before Rubens' disappearance convincingly convey joy, if not a sense of security, showing the idyllic day-to-day lives of the Paiva family enjoying the beach near their home and celebrating birthdays with friends set to Brazilian pop-rock. Vera's "sensory experience" letter from London with accompanying 8mm film and vinyl record is particularly fun. As Rubens is taken from his family by a squad of inconspicuously terrifying people, Torres work as Eunice make her the prefect audience surrogate as the tension and fear ramp up to a visceral level, particularly during Eunice's imprisonment while she, along with the viewer, is still kept in the dark about Rubens' fate. Torres' deftly delivers her most powerful moment of the film when Eunice openly confronts the men observing her home sitting in a car across the street, after their carelessness brings tragedy upon the family dog. The final sequences of the picture set in 1996 and 2014 serve to demonstrate that life moves on and may even flourish, but the scars left upon the victims of a fascist regime never fully heal.
As much an account of personal hardship as it is a cautionary reminder of the horrors endured by a country ruled by a military dictatorship, I'm Still Here is an uncompromising picture that authentically portrays dark times without sensationalism. It's a solid film, superbly directed and featuring excellent performances, particularly from its leading lady. The story is one of hope, of life persevering against cold and uncaring forces, of fighting for and disseminating the truth long after the transgression so that it is never forgotten, and it is one that will always be worth telling.
FRAGMENTS
- Pimpão the dog is truly adorable, and I was justifiably worried form him since the film's opening moments
- The soldier overseeing Eunice during her imprisonment letting her know he "doesn't think it's right" is just slightly endearing but infuriatingly frustrating
