When the world around you is crumbling to pieces, your family can become a place of refuge. As the television buzzes behind you, broadcasting montage after montage of troubling news, the dim light of hope is that, at the very least, you have each other.
No family demonstrates this reality more clearly than the Paivas in “I’m Still Here,” titled “Ainda Estou Aqui” in Portuguese. Directed by Walter Salles — one of Brazil’s most celebrated directors — the biographical film is an adaptation of Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir of the same name. Paiva’s father, Congressman Rubens Paiva, was one of over 400 others who were killed or forcibly disappeared during Brazil’s 21-year-long military dictatorship.
The film begins in 1970s Rio de Janeiro, six years into the country’s military dictatorship. Amid the country’s political unrest, Rubens (Selton Mello) and his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) try to maintain a happy home for their five children. For nearly an hour, the film paints a vibrant picture of the Paivas’ day-to-day life: The youngest children play soccer at the beach, and their older sisters dance to their vinyls in the living room. Eunice cooks soufflés, while Rubens smokes cigars in his study with other men from the city.
But after these jovial family moments, the film takes a sharp turn when the government interrogates Rubens about his political affiliations. The next day, authorities question Eunice and one of her daughters, hoping to charge Rubens with political crimes.
While Eunice and her daughter are released, Rubens never returns home again.
For the remainder of the film, the audience gets to experience Torres’s masterful portrayal of Eunice, who now has to support her family on her own. Each of Torres’s lines are said with grit, as Eunice refuses to let the government’s erasure of her husband destroy the family she has left. When the film fast forwards, viewers watch as the roles reverse: The Paiva children, now grown up and fully aware of Brazil’s history, become the source of strength for their aging mother.
In the final minutes of the film, an older Eunice (Fernanda Montenegro) sits in a wheelchair in one of her children’s homes watching television. As a news segment about the dictatorship comes on, audiences see Rubens’s face flash across the screen. Eunice sits up in the wheelchair, her mouth slightly open, and gasps. At the peak of her Alzheimer’s disease, she still recognizes her husband.
In this scene, Montenegro conveys the film’s message without saying a word. Though Rubens had already been gone for over forty years at this point in the film, the shock and terror of his forcible removal from Eunice’s life never leaves her. Despite this, she was able to raise a family that could pave a brighter future out of their dark pasts.
It’s easy to see where Torres, Montenegro’s daughter, got her impressive acting abilities from. In 1999, Montenegro was the first Brazilian actress to be nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Now, her daughter is following in her footsteps.
At the 97th Academy Awards, airing this Sunday, Torres is nominated for Best Actress. Torres is only the second Brazilian actress to receive a nomination in that category. “I’m Still Here” also received nominations for Best International Feature Film and Best Picture. This is the first time a Brazilian-produced film has ever been nominated in the latter category.
Guilherme Sequeira ’28 felt a sense of “national pride” watching the movie. To him, the film is “a celebration of Brazilian culture and of Brazilian joy, even in such a dark moment,” he said.
“The title of the film is key,” Sequeira added. “‘I’m Still Here’ is a cornerstone of remembrance to make sure events like (the dictatorship) don’t ever happen again.”
His aunt, Leticia Gama de Medeiros, who lives in Rio, saw “I’m Still Here” in November when it was released in Brazil. Her quotes have been translated from Portuguese to English by The Herald.
Born two years after the start of the dictatorship, Medeiros remembers media censorship and “rumors about repressive acts” during her childhood, she told The Herald. She added that her parents warned her to “never share who they voted for” in elections.
Reflecting on the current political situation in Brazil, Medeiros mentioned former president Jair Bolsonaro, “who publicly defended the dictatorship and planned, right under our noses, a coup of the likes of the one of 1964.”
“Still there are people in Brazil that support Bolsonaro, denying the evidence and advocating for the return of a military regime,” she added.
Now more than ever, the film serves as a reminder to Brazilians — and particularly to young people that “even if imperfect, it’s better to live under democracy than under dictatorship,” Medeiros said.
Sanai Rashid lives in Long Island, New York. As an English and Economics concentrator, she is passionate about storytelling and how numbers and data create narratives in ways words alone cannot. When she is not writing, you can find her trying new pizza places in Providence or buying another whale stuffed animal.
