When a book shop owner decides to shut shop and skedaddle from Brazil during the oppressive military dictatorship of Emílio Garrastazu Médici, he gives a parting gift of a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank to one of the Paivas girls. It’s a spookily prescient present, a sledgehammer symbol early in Walter Salles timely film, I’M STILL HERE.
The film begins in Rio de Janeiro, in 1970 a little over half a century ago. Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship as we are introduced to the Paivas: a father, Rubens, a mother, Eunice, and their children.
They live by the beach, in a house with doors constantly open to friends. The affection and humour they share among themselves are their own subtle forms of resistance to the oppression that hangs over the country.
Rubens is also subtly involved in perceived subversive acts and one day comes a knock on the door and he is taken away. Eunice and their eldest daughter, Vera, are also taken away. Vera is released shortly afterwards, Eunice suffers a number of days of interrogation, while Rubens disappears.
In the aftermath, Eunice is forced to reinvent herself and carve out a new future for herself and her children.
I’M STILL HERE is told from Eunice’s perspective. She must hold secrets, deal with a patriarchal society and junta, and endeavour to not let the bastards grind her down. In her restraint, Eunice embodies a rare form of resistance and Fernanda Torres in the role conveys that resilience in spades.
No wonder she has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in this year’s Oscars.
This film, also nominated for Best Picture and Best International Picture at the Academy Awards, was conceived before the Bolsonaro years, and unfortunately seems not only a film about a past gone by but also a film about the dangers of new forms of authoritarianism that threaten Brazil – not to mention the world.
With a towering leading performance from Fernanda Torres and her real life mother, Fernanda Montenegro beautifully cast as the older Eunice, and a wonderful understated score by Warren Ellis, I’M STILL HERE is a cautionary tale of the abuse of absolute power, the manipulation of the press, and the crushing of basic democratic rights.
