As it seems here in the States we might be slipping towards a far-right rule (as are many other countries across the world unfortunately), it’s eerily timely that director Walter Salles returns to his dramatic Brazilian roots and explores the military dictatorship that lasted from 1964-1985 and how it impacted real-life widow Eunice Paiva as she seeks justice for her husband Rubens Paiva’s forced disappearance for dissenting views in I’m Still Here.
Based on the book of the same name by her son Marcelo Rubens Paiva, I’m Still Here turns its attention away from the son and focuses squarely on the mother Eunice as she navigates her husband’s disappearance, her own rendition and interrogation by the military, and then trying to hold her family together while also trying to find her husband and seek answers for what has happened to him.
I’m Still Here begins in 1970 as former Brazilian politician Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), his wife Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), and their family return to Rio de Janeiro after self-exile following the military’s coup d’état. While life under the military’s occupation isn’t ideal, the family manages to find a way to be happy. However, all they have to do is turn on the news and know that things aren’t so great as there are kidnappings by the resistance, as well as kidnappings by the military in retaliation. The Paiva’s decide to send their oldest (and politically active) daughter Vera (Valentina Herszage) to London because they don’t want her getting swept up in protests against the military. Following the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador by left-wing revolutionaries, the military turns up the heat, which puts the Paiva family in their sights.
At first, Rubens is called in for “questioning” by the military, and Eunice and the family think nothing of it. But soon enough, hours turn to days… and days compound the worrying by Eunice. She has to keep a brave face on 24/7 for her children who know nothing about the political landscape and has to say that Rubens is on a “business trip” but she clearly is afraid. Unfortunately, her problems are just starting when the military shows up at her doorstep, and this time, they want her and their other daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) in for questioning. While the military releases Eliana after 24 hours of questioning, they keep Eunice at their black site for days on end (to where she doesn’t even remember how long she was there) questioning and torturing her for information about “terrorists,” who are really just idealists against the military rule.
While Eunice is eventually released from custody, she and the family still have no idea where Rubens is, or if he’s even still alive. Of course, the military says they have no idea where he is. There are no records of him ever being in custody. This radicalizes Eunice to devote her life to trying to find her husband and she begins a campaign to bring awareness to the military’s actions that are happening across the country. She becomes much more politically active than she was as a housewife, and engages any newspaper that will listen. The Brazilian media is fearful of the military, so she goes to international media. With unmarked cars following her (even killing the family dog), Eunice relocates her family out of Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo for what seems like a fresh start. She goes back to school gets her law degree, and then dedicates her life to finding out what happened to her husband as well as many other victims of the military’s disappearance (more than 20,000 people disappeared), until she finally gets justice for her husband in the form of an official death certificate by the government more than 25 years later.
I’m Still Here’s timely release serves as a warning against right-wing fascism, so much so that the far-right of Brazil tried to initiate a boycott against the film, which proved unsuccessful as it has since gone and become one of Brazil’s biggest box-office films in the aftermath of Covid. It helps showcase how terrifying it can be to live under a military dictatorship and should serve as a warning to any democracy that is starting to dip its toes into this ideology. Centering the film on the matriarch of a family having to deal with the military threat at any given moment also keeps the film intimate and completely relatable at the same time. If I’m Still Here wanted to focus on the bigger picture, it might not have been as effective, so kudos to director Walter Salles.
That said, I’m Still Here feels a little incomplete. It opts to focus on Eunice and her own dealings with the military just as she’s becoming politically active. Only the last third of the film focuses on the work that she starts doing in the name of her husband, and it sometimes feels like an afterthought. There’s a moment in the film where she says she’s going back to school to get her law degree, and then time jumps to show the fruits of her labor instead of actually showing what she did to get the result. Eunice also became an activist for the Indigenous people of Brazil, which was a big part of her life, but barely gets a mention in the film. Although I’m Still Here runs almost two and a half hours, there’s still plenty of story to tell for such a remarkable woman that makes the film feel like there are big pieces missing.
That said, it’s almost no surprise that Fernanda Torres recently won the Golden Globe for Best Actress and probably will be an Academy Award frontrunner. She is mesmerizing as Eunice throughout I’m Still Here. Even towards the end of the film which has Eunice dealing with Alzheimer’s disease is a beautiful, yet powerful silent performance. The film lives and dies on her performance, and it’s an exceptional one. It showcases how even one person through sheer will and determination can help change the course of history for the better. Hopefully, folks here in the States are taking notes and we can also have a better future.
I’m Still Here is currently playing in theaters.
