A big lie is a familiar technique, frequently used throughout history for propaganda purposes. In Nazi Germany, Jews were blamed for the country’s loss in World War I. In the United States, Donald Trump and his allies are still falsely claiming that he actually won the 2020 presidential election. And in Brazil, the far right refuse to acknowledge the fact that the 1964-1985 military rule was a dictatorship.
When I’m Still Here premiered, there was an attempt to boycott the movie, but it turned out that Brazilian audiences were eager to see this reckoning with the evil forces of those two decades, perhaps especially at a time when former president Jair Bolsonaro, a supporter of the big lie, faces charges of planning a new military coup.
A nice and quiet life by the beach
We’re in Rio de Janeiro and it’s 1970. The military has ruled Brazil for six years, but the Paiva family are having a nice and quiet life in a wonderful house near the beach. Rubens and Eunice (Selton Mello, Fernanda Torres) are raising five children; their oldest daughter Vera (Valentina Herszage) is staying in London together with friends of the family who have sought refuge there. Rubens is a civil engineer now, but his past is political; at the time of the coup, he was a member of Congress. Without sharing details with Eunice, Rubens is now doing what he can to help people in exile. One day, several men come knocking on the Paiva’s door and tell Rubens that there are questions he needs to answer.
Repetitive interrogations
That’s the last anyone sees of Rubens Paiva. He was one of many who simply disappeared in Brazil and other South American dictatorships. Based on a memoir written by Paiva’s son Marcelo, the film focuses mainly on Eunice who also falls victim to the dictatorship; shortly after Rubens is taken away for questioning, so is she and one of their daughters, Eliana (Luiza Kosovski). The girl is soon released, but Eunice spends almost two weeks in a secret facility. The only break comes in the shape of repetitive interrogations where she’s asked to identify enemies of the state by looking at photographs. Eventually, she’s released, but picking up the pieces after what happened isn’t easy – neither is finding out what happened to her husband.
When I saw this film, I didn’t know the true story, so I shared much of Eunice’s emotions.
Walter Salles and his crew expertly build our emotions for this family, slowly drawing us into their sun-drenched, bourgeois, well-educated lives; they seem protected from the horrors of the dictatorship, until reality literally comes knocking on the door. From there on, we sense the danger. When I saw this film, I didn’t know the true story, so I shared much of Eunice’s emotions, wondering if perhaps Rubens might come back at some point, realizing along with her that it simply isn’t going to happen. There’s a moving scene near the end as the story jumps to 1996, after the fall of the dictatorship, and two of the grown-up children are talking about at what point they finally ”buried” their father; accepting his death was truly individual.
The last scene is poignant, when we meet an elderly Eunice, lost in the fog of Alzheimer’s. Now there’s symbolism at work; we must never forget the evil of authoritarian systems. In that scene, Eunice is played by Brazil’s most famous actor, Fernanda Montenegro, who’s quite a presence even in a small role like this.
But the film belongs to her daughter, Torres, who’s a tower of strength as Eunice. Her gripping performance, Salles’s steady hand as director, Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega’s empathetic writing and Adrian Teijido’s lush cinematography all contribute to a powerful experience.
I’m Still Here 2024-Brazil-France. 138 min. Color. Directed by Walter Salles. Screenplay: Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega. Book: Marcelo Rubens Paiva. Cinematography: Adrian Teijido. Cast: Fernanda Torres (Eunice Paiva), Selton Mello (Rubens Paiva), Guilherme Silveira (Young Marcelo Rubens Paiva), Valentina Herszage, Luiza Kosovski, Barbara Luz, Fernanda Montenegro.
Trivia: Original title: Ainda estou aqui.
Oscar: Best International Feature. Golden Globe: Best Actress (Torres). Venice: Best Screenplay.
Last word: “The sister in the middle, Nalu, was the best friend of a friend of mine, and this is how I got to meet the siblings and the father and mother. And what surprised me immediately was how alive that house was. It’s not by accident that the house is a character in the film because this is where people from different generations mingled, in opposition to what happened in my house, for instance. […] When I think about that past, when I was 13 or 14 years old, it’s almost like there was still a country we all hoped for, with those characteristics, that was still very present in that house. […] To see that luminous place suddenly devoid of life and the house shut down and police a little bit everywhere in the street was a shock I never forgot.” (Salles, Hammer to Nail)