I'm Still Here [2024]

 Memorable films and books hinged around enforced disappearances of political dissidents, which was frequent under military dictatorships in Latin America, interweave the personal and the collective, with one informing the other. I’m Still Here, Walter Salles’ haunting and intimate tale of loss, defiance and solidarity, touched upon a brutal national wound through one family’s story. Adapted from Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir, and imbued with the director’s own memories, it focussed on the well-off, progressive and politically engaged Paiva family on the despairing backdrop of Brazil’s repressive military dictatorship. Rubens (Selton Mello) – civil engineer, former Congressman and secret supporter of left-wing resistance activities – was arrested, tortured and killed by the authorities, though his status remained officially “unknown” until his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres), who became a lawyer at the age of 47 and an activist championing victims of the dictatorship, secured his death certificate twenty-five years later. The film began on a buoyant note as we see this family – which also comprised of their four lively kids, living in a beach-side house in Rio Janeiro, and regularly visited by friends – with hints to the troubling political situation that turns into a backlash upon a Swiss diplomat’s kidnapping. The narrative, therefore, was broken into a “before” and an “after” as we see Eunice – who herself was illegally detained for 12 days – having to uproot her family and provide for it while doggedly pursuing Rubens’ disappearance. Accompanied by an engrossing soundtrack from the 60s and 70s, and powered by a towering central turn by Torres, this luminously shot and classically framed film reminded me of Cuarón’s Roma, which too was exquisitely foregrounded on a closely-knit family on the backdrop of political tyranny.

Director: Walter Salles

Genre: Drama/Historical Drama/Political Drama/Docudrama/Family Drama

Language: Portuguese

Country: Brazil