I'm Still Here

Based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir, I’m Still Here transports us to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1970s when Brazil’s dictatorship sought to exert its authority through detentions and disappearances. The latest from Walter Salles, director of the Oscar-nominated Central Station (TIFF ’98) and the Oscar-winning The Motorcycle Diaries (TIFF ’04), focuses on Eunice Paiva, whose terrifying experiences transformed her into an activist, lawyer, and hero.

When I’m Still Here begins, life in the merrily crowded Paiva household is warm and jovial, despite the threat of spot checks and arrests that loom over every outing. All this changes when patriarch Rubens (Selton Mello), a former congressman forced to live in exile during the previous decade, is ushered away to provide a mysterious deposition to military interrogators. Soon after, officers come for Eunice (a superb Fernanda Torres), holding her 12 days in a windowless prison as they try to persuade her to incriminate friends and associates accused of leftwing activities. Eunice emerges from prison transformed, embarking on a journey to expose the government’s illegal activities and refusals to acknowledge their role in the disappearances of thousands of innocent citizens.

Part of what gives I’m Still Here its tremendous power is the way Salles and his collaborators give equal weight to the personal and the political. Eunice remains a loving and fiercely protective mother to her children, even as she pursues the courageous campaign against the dictatorship that will consume several decades of her life. This is an engrossing, deeply moving film about ordinary people who refuse to hide when the tempests of history come calling.

DIANA CADAVID

Content advisory: violence, mature themes