TIFF Review: “I’m Still Here”

I’m Still Here (Walter Salles, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

Brazil’s military dictatorship lasted 21 years, from 1964-1985. Starting in the 1970s, the government began to crack down with greater force than before on the voices of dissent, or even just on those perceived to potentially offer resistance. Many such unfortunates were “disappeared,” their bodies never to be recovered. If you wonder why today’s Brazil has reacted more strongly to ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts to overturn the results of the last election than has the United States of America to its own recent failed coup, look no further than this recent history.

In I’m Still Here, Brazilian director Walter Salles (On the Road) returns to the big screen with his first feature in a decade, taking on his country’s traumatic past in a gripping family drama filled with terrific performances. Based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s eponymous memoir, the movie tells the sad story of the author’s father, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman arrested in 1971, and the resultant devastation weathered by Paiva’s wife, Eunice, and their five children, Marcelo among them. Salles shows he has lost none of his cinematic grace, nor commitment to progressive values (as per previous work like 2004’s The Motorcycle Diaries), delivering one emotional gut punch after another.

The anchor of the movie is Fernanda Torres (The House of Sand)—daughter of the great Fernanda Montenegro, who starred in Salles’ 1998 Central Station—as Eunice, who is also arrested shortly after the military takes away her husband. With no clue as to why this is all happening now, she cannot answer her captor’s questions and is therefore kept in isolation for weeks, away from her kids. It’s when she returns home, finally, that the real nightmare begins. Not only will no one tell her what has happened to Rubens, but the government even denies his arrest, claiming he fled the country.

Before we get to the horrors, however, Salles first establishes time and place, with vivid images bolstered not only by beautiful cinematography (from Adrian Teijido, River of Desire)—shot on 35mm film—but wonderful period décor, courtesy of production designer Carlos Conti (The Mustang). In these early scenes, we grow to love the Paiva family. Rubens (Selton Mello, The Movie of My Life) proves a loving husband and father, busy with work but devoted to making the home a special place for all.

There are early scenes of potential trouble, as the army pulls over cars following the kidnapping of a Swiss diplomat by opposition guerillas. In one of those is the Paiva’s eldest, daughter, Vera, aka Veroca (Valentina Herszage, O Mensageiro), whose Super 8mm handheld camera and pot-smoking friends arouse suspicions. Concerned about her welfare, Rubens and Eunice decide to send her abroad, with friends emigrating to London. They, however, choose to stay in Brazil, imagining that things can’t get worse. Sadly, that is a mistake.

Following Eunice’s return from prison, the film tracks her multi-year attempts to find out what has happened to Rubens, eventually cutting to 26 years later, and then a further 18 years after that (at which point Torres is replaced by her mother). As tragic a tale as this may be, there is grandeur in its telling, and powerful love on display, as well. The film may be a little too long, but that is a quibble. With people who refuse to forget, memories last forever. Rubens receives a great tribute, as does the human desire for freedom.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.