I'm Still Here

I’m Still Here is a 2024 Brazilian historical drama directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, On the Road, Central Station) that won Best International and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress in a Leading Role at this year’s 97th Academy Awards. The film’s story is based on a memoir (Ainda estou aqui) by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, telling the story of his family. It is set in the 1970s, in Rio de Janeiro, during the dictatorship that lasted 20 years in Brazil. The story portrays a beautiful family consisting of Rubens Paiva (played by Selton Mello), Eunice Paiva (played by Fernanda Torres), and their five children. They are a free, loving family who know how to live life, live near the sea, go to the beach every day, dance, have fun, and are truly happy. When you watch the film’s first act, you connect with the characters and feel like you’re part of the family, or at least you want to feel that way. There is peace, there is humanity, there is freedom. In their home, a new possibility of another country pulsates. A country that everyone wants to be a part of, reflecting a time when art was flourishing against political repression. Musical and film movements were emerging, such as Tropicália (a counterculture movement) and Cinema Novo (a film movement in which films were more realistic and less theatrical). Despite censorship, the culture of democracy still lived on in this family’s home. It is a vibrant and genuinely alive home.

They lived under this dictatorship until Rubens Paiva was taken to testify by agents of the military regime, and so the family’s life began to fall apart. The events brought tension, fear, and silence—not knowing where her husband was, Eunice Paiva was forced to reinvent herself and keep the family together. The audience experiences limbo. Eunice does not cry; she shows bravery and has to care for herself and five children alone. What the characters don’t say in words, they express through their looks and gestures. It’s as if we, the audience, also have to remain silent. Fernanda Torres acts brilliantly. She is resilient and powerful, and you quickly understand why she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress and why the Academy nominated her. The film is fantastic, poetic, sad, beautiful, and extraordinary. With her resilience, fear, and insecurity, Eunice Paiva protected her children until the end. A wife and mother, a true heroine. It’s no wonder that the film received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Venice festival. It’s a real-life feminist tale.

The focus of the film is not the dictatorship itself, but the story of a family affected by it and of a woman who has the profound capacity to fight for her family. I’m Still Here is an unflinching portrait of emotional turmoil, a beautiful film worth watching that delivers a powerful message: we cannot lose the memory of these moments of pain in which humanity lived through wars, dictatorships, and scarcity to avoid repeating them. And that art, joy, and freedom of spirit are what set us free.