DAVID ADAMS watches Brazilian director Walter Salles’ ‘I’m Still Here’…
I’m Still Here (AU – M/ UK – 15/US – PG-13)
In a word: Confronting
Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) and his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) with two of their five children – Marcelo (Guilherme Silveira) and Maria (Cora Mora).
I’m Still Here tells the story of the disappearance of former Brazilian congressman Rubens Paiva – and his wife Eunice’s courageous efforts to find him – during the Brazilian dictatorship of the 1970s.
“Directed by Brazilian Walter Salles, the film is based on a memoir by Paiva’s real-life son Marcelo. It opens with a painstaking recreation of the day-to-day life of the large and boisterous Paiva family.”
Directed by Brazilian Walter Salles, the film is based on a memoir by Paiva’s real-life son Marcelo Rubens Paiva. It opens with a painstaking recreation of the day-to-day life of the large and boisterous Paiva family as they spend time at Rio’s famous beach and among their tight-knit group of friends.
Rubens (played by Selton Mello) is a former congressman who forced to step down following the 1964 coup and who spend six years in exile before returning to work in the private sector as a civil engineer. He and his wife Eunice (played largely by Fernanda Torres) keep a watchful eye over their four daughters – Veroca, Nalu, Eliana and Maria (Babiu) – and son Marcelo (played by Guilherme Silveira as a boy and Antonio Saboia later in life) as they grapple with the challenges – some mundane, some not – they face living in 1970s Brazil.
We’re immediately aware of the rising tensions playing out in their home city of Rio de Janeiro amid a military crackdown on perceived dissenters, brought into close focus when Veroca is stopped at a checkpoint while out with friends.
The tension continues to build throughout the first half of the film as the family tries to continue with their lives, including planning for a new house, before their worst fears are realised when men arrive at the family home to take Rubens away.
Mello puts in a memorable performance as the easy-going and loving father Rubens, but this is ultimately Torres’ film. Her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Eunice is indeed memorable as the character is forced to continue to care for her family while seeking information about her husband, all under the threat of further action against the family.
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We’re shown glimpses of her later life after she moves her family to Sao Paulo, leaving behind the beloved beach at Rio where the family spent so many happy days, and goes back to college before taking up a new role fighting for the rights of Indigenous people.
Nostalgic in places, terrifying in others, I’m Still Here is elegantly constructed film which eloquently evokes a sense of what’s lost, both personally and in a wider social sense, when the rule of law is lost.
The film is an historical account of how one family became embroiled in a dark time in Brazil (and a celebration of a woman’s determination to stand against it). But it can also be seen as a warning at a time when, all around the world, governments are sliding towards authoritarianism.
