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A mother is forced to reinvent herself when her family’s life is torn apart by an act of arbitrary violence during the grip of a military dictatorship in Brazil, 1971. Chosen by the Brazilian Film Academy to compete for Best International Film at the 2025 Oscars. Eunice Paiva: Martha, you have to help me. My husband is in danger! Martha: Everyone is in danger, Eunice. Appeared in Mais Você: Episode of December 3, 2024 (2024). A Festa do Santo ReisWritten by Léo Maia (as Marcio Leonardo)Played by Tim Maia. "I'm Still Here" goes beyond being a simple film about military dictatorship, offering a human, intense and brutally intimate portrait of a family crumbling under overwhelming and uncontrollable forces. Walter Salles, with his raw style and unparalleled sensitivity, returns to the theme of a country immersed in repression, but rather than focusing on major political events, he focuses on their consequences in homes and personal lives. By focusing the story on family drama, Salles subverts the expectations of a traditional historical film, avoiding documentary tones or a broad, structural focus. Here, 1970s Brazil is perceived through the struggles of the Paiva family, and in the painful details of their shared wounds, Salles portrays the scars left by a dictatorship that, although distorted in collective memory, remains alive in the lives it shattered. The choice to focus the narrative through the perspective of Eunice, played by the iconic Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro, gives the film an undeniable authenticity. As she copes with the loss of her husband, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a public figure and defender of the rights of the people, Eunice must keep her family together and preserve the emotional stability of her children. Eunice is the pure embodiment of resilience and maternal love, and her daily routines, rituals with her children, and shared moments as a family are fragments of a once ordinary life, now ruined by a sudden absence. Family dinners and memories of trips to the beach become painful when revisited after Rubens’s disappearance, as they reveal the empty space left by systemic violence. Salles skillfully uses this family intimacy to show how dictatorship destroys emotional bonds and disrupts the peace of each home, prompting the audience to reflect on how history is also shaped by losses and silent moments in everyday life. Fernanda Torres’s performance deserves intense praise. She embodies a woman who refuses to be immobilized by grief, balancing the protection of her children with the relentless search for answers about her husband’s whereabouts. This balance between strength and vulnerability gives Eunice a surprising and essential presence in the film. In a moving and remarkably mature performance, Montenegro, as the older Eunice, intensifies the impact of Rubens’ absence, bringing a heavy, almost physical silence that resonates with those who never had the chance to say goodbye. Montenegro and Torres’ real-life relationship as mother and daughter adds authenticity to the transitions in time, making Eunice’s portrayal all the more heartfelt and believable. This genuine continuity allows Salles’ film to transcend mere fiction and reach a depth that only a personal story can achieve. Technically, the film is a visual achievement that captures the intimate pain of this family through meticulously crafted cinematography. The use of tight spaces and close-ups reveals the characters’ physical and psychological confinement, mirroring the oppression that looms over their lives. The soundtrack follows the most emotional scenes with an almost mystical quality, merging with the characters’ feelings like a whisper holding back the pains of the past. Salles’s use of music is interesting, not only to heighten the drama but to evoke an almost tangible nostalgia in the air, an echo of absences that can never be overcome.
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