If there were a subtitle for I’m Still Here, it would be A Family Affair. Every Brazilian family was affected by the military dictatorship that scarred and scared the nation for two decades. Though this is one story about one family, the movie works because it feels like it’s carrying the weight of many families like it the longer the tale goes.
The military dictatorship in Brazil from 1964 to 1985 is a blight on the country’s history. So many people were just taken from their homes…and never seen again, with the government hiding all evidence of their crimes. One such family affected by this is the Paiva family. Husband Rubens (Selton Mello) was a former anti military congressman turned private architectural engineer. However, that past keeps him and his family heavily watched by the Brazilian army. Eventually, one fateful day, a bunch of armed men ask Rubens to “come with them for questioning.” This leaves matriarch Eunice (Fernanda Torres) and her family in horrible limbo, hoping against hope that their husband/dad will return. This whole experience destroys Eunice for a little bit…until she picks up the pieces, and uses it as fuel to crusade against it.
The key word in the title is Here, but not for the reasons the title suggests. Walter Salles brilliantly transplants us to a specific time and place: 1970 Brazil, key to the power of this film. The movie takes its time showing what it’s like to grow up in Rio de Janeiro at the start of the 70s: beach activities abound, dinner and dancing parties, hushed political talk among the adults, hippie rebellion from the children. Sounds pretty great right? Then Salles starts layering in the dread: oldest daughter Vera (Valentina Herszage) stopped and frisked for hours at a covert military stop and search. Cars parked outside the Paiva house. One family friend moving to England. In a vacuum, these would seem one off strange occurrences, but the tensions build little by little as the Paiva children happily play sports on the beach or get ice cream. This joy of living is slowly clouded by the paranoia around military abuse of power. Salles overlays grainy video footage and pictures with smart production and costume design to help transport the audience covertly while telling his tale.
The other key to the movie is the dichotomy of euphoric cinematic history mixed with horrifying real world history. Fernanda Torres, the star of I’m Still Here, was ready the larger than life Eunice she is portraying. Torres is no out of nowhere actress: 25 years ago, her mother Fernanda Montenegro got an Oscar Nomination for her role in Walter Salles’s Central Station. Turns out the acting talent passed down from mother to daughter; Torres has to deliver one of the big character arcs of the year going from “the wife” character into a heroic crusader for justice. To do so, Salles layers the film with the scale it needs, sending poor Eunice through high family highs and terrifying physical and emotional lows of the era. By the end, satisfied isn’t the right word, but we feel content that both Eunice and Feranda Torres gave everything they had and got the resolutions they so desperately craved. Everyone seems to get the stakes here, and all rise to the occasion to make I’m Still Here the epic it deserves to be.
I’m still a City of God (directed by Fernando Meirelles) guy, as the best Brazilian film ever made. However, the Fernandas are hot on your tale, Fernando! I’m Still Here and Central Station are two pillars of the film industry from the great South American Country. I hope this trend continues, and a third Fernanda comes and takes the belt from City of God, though I shudder thinking about what Lil Ze might do if that happens.