Ainda Estou Aqui

I'm Still Here is a very special film. It has a story that makes the viewer very interested in seeing how it unfolds. However, what this film has the best quality for is the Fernanda Torres' performance is moving, captivating, one of the best performances I've ever seen. It's truly surreal how talented she is, just like her mother. Furthermore, the film is directed by Walter Salles who had already worked on the excellent film Central Station, with Fernanda Montenegro, in this film he shows himself to be very competent. He is a very talented guy in what he does. Overall, I'm Still Here is the best foreign film of the year, a beautiful movie.

I'M STILL HERE (2024) Walter Salles' gripping I'M STILL HERE takes on the true story of persecuted journalist Rubens Paiva. It's personal with Salles as he was a childhood friend of the family. Brazil. 1971. The country is run by a brutal dictatorship. Paiva (Selton Mello) is an engineer and ex-congressman from the opposition party. His family tries to live as normal a life as possible, until he's seized by authorities.

Salles and his writers Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorenga base their script on the memoir of Paiva's son Marcello. It's very well balanced between family and politics. Right from the start we see his oldest daughter Veroca (Valentina Herszage) out with friends on a typical fun night when suddenly, they are pulled over and roughed up by military police looking for radical 'hippies'. There is an atmosphere of kidnapping and danger in the air. Veroca is sent overseas for her protection.

Once Paiva is captured, the emphasis turns to his wife Eunice, brilliantly played by Fernanda Torres. She battles not only to find and get her husband released, but is the rock that keeps the family together. It's a strong drama which Salles and his team make both palpable and universal beyond Brazil's borders. It remains timely as its warnings about oppression sadly remain potent today. Shooting on 35mm, Adrian Teijido gives it a gritty, but organic look. Warren Ellis' score is quite fine. Salles (THE MOTORCYLE DIARIES, ON THE ROAD) has a real feel for the material. The epilogue is a bit elongated even if it imparts some closure and a chance to see Fernanda Montenegro once again (Oscar nominee for Salles' excellent CENTRAL STATION - and, the mother of of Fernanda Torres).

I'M STILL HERE is a superb effort from Salles, and Rubens Paiva's story is worth telling.

I have to say that I have the highest regard for Walter Salles' gifts as a movie director. Back in 1999, I found truly impressive one of his early films, CENTRAL DO BRASIL (CENTRAL STATION), with Fernanda Montenegro delivering one of her most thoughtful and sensitive performances.

As mesmerising as that film was, it came nowhere near the merits and masterpiece status that AINDA ESTOU AQUI (I'M STILL HERE) richly shows from beginning to end.

This masterpiece is anchored by a superb script by Murilo Hauser off the book by Marcelo Paiva, the son of MP Rubens Paiva who was abducted by the Brazilian Military Police from his house in January 1971. The way the police go about it is truly sinister, keeping the family jailed in its own house, not allowing the wife to see the husband, not disclosing any info relating to the abductee's whereabouts, taking even one of the children for interrogation.

There are two towering performances in AINDA ESTOU AQUI: Fernanda Torres, in it almost continuously until the last 15 minutes, and Selton Mello as the luckless MP who quietly tries to help individuals sought and detained by the dictatorship, then with Emilio Médici as Brazilian president.

You can feel the noose tightening around the family, with the authorities showing no concern at all that the family included five teenagers needing food and education. Fernanda Torres plays a highly dignified Eunice as the wife doing all she can to retrieve her husband whilst raising her numerous brood.

Torres delivers a quiet, moving performance in which her eyes tell you more than any words. Slender and elegant, she holds her family together, has to look for work and studies at university to become a lawyer, which she does by age 48.

Cinematography by Adrian Teijido is absolutely top notch, as is the editing by Afonso Gonçalves.

It is not an easy film to watch, bubbling with concealed violence that constricts the family more and more.

I hope today's Brazilian Government watches and takes note of this film's content and message because it depicts a past that simply must not be repeated. There is much to learn from it, and not just by Brazil - by any country in the world, even self-styled "greatest democracies".

Definite must-see. I can confidently predict that no film competing for Oscars this year is better. 10/10.

Brazilian film with the greatest international repercussion in recent years, winner of the best screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar, I'm Still Here dramatizes the trajectory of the Paiva family between the arrest of Rubens Paiva, the father, and Eunice's struggle after her husband's disappearance. Walter Salles immerses the viewer in the intimacy of this family and makes them an accomplice, making them care about the fate of each one, creating three-dimensional, real, believable characters. Fernanda Torres plays the role of her life, almost a Greek heroine marked by tragedy, with subtlety, without ever falling into excess or caricature. Detailed scenography, lean script, natural interpretations, hand-picked soundtrack, precise editing, everything contributes to the director being able to convey exactly what he set out to do. As I knew the story, I had read the book on which the film is based, in addition to reports about it, my attention focused on the cinematographic solutions used by the director. He manages to turn this particular story into something universal, capable of communicating with audiences anywhere in the world.

"I'm Still Here" is a powerful portrayal of a moment in Brazilian history that traumatized many people. In a well-constructed atmosphere, the viewer enters the past of a country, a past that is disowned and ignored by the country itself, and this makes the experience of watching "I'm Still Here" in a movie theater in Brazil even more powerful. Of all the Brazilian filmmakers, Walter Salles stands out with his talented direction and interesting photography, and the production is truly impressive. The actors are talented and I want to highlight the younger actors, who certainly give the film a touch of depth and beauty necessary for us to feel the "magic of cinema". Regarding the kind human side present in "I'm Still Here", it is wonderful to see a film by a filmmaker who truly understands cinema, who does not present alienated ideas but rather pure and genuine human expression. As a Brazilian, of course, I will be rooting for Walter Salles' work to be nominated for an Oscar, but I think the goal of making national cinema talked about again has already been achieved. Beautiful film, beautiful message and beautiful performances.