SELTON MELLO, FERNANDA TORRES, GUILHERME SILVEIRA IN I'M STILL HERE

WALTER SALLES: I'M STILL HERE (2024) - NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

Dramatic recreation of the destruction of a family by a dictatorship

There have been many dictatorships and juntas in Latin America - Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Haiti, Cuba, the list goes on - but the one depicted in Walter Salles' film he knew personally, in Brazil. He does not recount the political details for us or give us any dates - except dates in the life of the Paiva family. He knew them in Rio in the early seventies when he was a teenager and has has reported often visiting the "beautiful house" where they lived, near the beach, where we see the family cavorting. They are happy as only Brazilians on the beach in Rio can be.

But this is not about Walter. It's first about Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), next about his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres; as an old woman, Fernanda Montenegro, star of Salles' early masterpiece, the 1998 Central Station), and then about his five children, four girls and one boy, Marcello (Guilherme Silveira as a boy, Antonio Saboia as an adult disabled in an accident who was to become an important writer). The girls, one of whom goes off to study in post-Beatles England, draw more of the attention at first, but Marcelo was to write Feliz Ano Velho (Happy Old Year), a book about himself and his family that made him famous, and later Ainda estou aqui (I'm Still Here), the book that gave its name to this film.

The first half hour is the celebration of a happy Brazilian family. The father seems mostly there. There are frolics on the beach, much togetherness, ice cream, many plans, lots of smiling photos taken. Then when the family is at home, the men come. They are seedy, bearded, grim, armed. They take husband and father Rubens, the big soft jovial man, away. He goes and dresses in coat and tie for the surprise journey. He is to give a "deposition." He says goodbye to Eunice. Is there any sadder moment than a pater familias being taken away from his lively family by the minions of a dictatorship?

It's the last Eunice or the children ever see of Rubens, the last of the happy family. Salles wonderfully (if you can call such a thing wonderful) captures the way happiness can be turned off for a family. Eunice is taken away too, with the eldest daughter, to one of the dictatorship's hells, probably military barracks, where she is kept for several weeks, held alone in a dark cell, and repeatedly questioned. Her husband, who we learn later was formerly a congressman but has for years not been involved in politics, they accuse of being a communist - he was not; but his very real activism against the regime, though hinted at later, we learn nothing about. We see Eunice's ordeal. We also see when she is returned home from it, a memorable sequence.

It's night, and she lets herself in quietly, looks in on her daughters, without waking them. Salles captures so vividly the intensity of this moment. One also feels the divided mood, when the older sisters know and the younger kids are shielded from knowing that anything wrong is afoot. Which it is, of course, very wrong. It may feel Salles is taking too much time. Rubens Paiva never comes back: why mark time in forever? But it makes good sense because this is as precise a film as it is a warm and heartbreaking one. There is a process of attrition, as the family is long guarded by a revolving corps of guards first inside, then outside, the house.

The psychological blows are accompanied by physical ones. The dictatorship doesn't make plans for the Paiva family's upkeep and - guess what? Following the male-centric rules of the time, Eunice has no access to the family bank account without Rubens' signature, and there is no money. She has to give up land for cash and, against the outcries of the younger children who understand nothing, she sells the house and they move to be near the grandparents in São Paolo because there is no money. When the house is emptied it is even more impressive. We see three big high ceilinged rooms enfilade downstairs, then a whole upstairs.

In fact we realize the film skips over things, because the story of Eunice is elided somewhat: we learn only that she goes back to university, studies law, and becomes a champion of indigenous people against the Amazon forest land grabs for years to come. We jump to 1996. Then there is a final jump, to 2014, when the family is together, with 94-year-old Fernanda Montenegro riveting as a silent, wheelchair-bound Eunice with advanced Alzheimer's after a life of accomplishment without her stolen husband. Among one of her perverse satisfactions has been finally persuading the state to give her a death certificate for her husband.

It was six years into Brazil's 22-year military dictatorship, in 1971, when government critic and former congressman Rubens Paiva was taken away and "disappeared" from his loving family. This is the story of his family's experience of this deprivation and attempt to see to the bottom of it. Jessica Kiang points out that filmmaker Salles has a personal stake, adapted from the son Marcelo Rubens Paiva's memoir. Salles knew the family as far back as the Sixties and spent much time at the "lovely house" near the beach that appears, in person, in the opening sequence of this film.

This is a shattering experience, depicted most memorably by Walter Salles. As Eunice, Fernanda Torres gives a valiant and tireless performance. But where the film excels is in its creation of a world, its mise-en-scène, and the fineness of the ensemble acting and Salles' direction. A magnificent film, which requires much digesting.

I'm still Here/Ainda Estou Aqui, 136 mins., debuted at Venice Sept. 1, 2024, showing also at Toronto, San Sebastián, São Paulo, Hawaii International (Oahu), London BFI, Zurich, Mill Valley, La Roche, AFI, and other US and international festivals, including the NYFF, where it was screened for this review. Metacritic rating: ̶8̶0̶%̶ 7̶9̶%̶ now 86%..
Opens January 24, 2025 AT AMC Kabuki 8, San Francisco, Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael. Opens January 31 Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley, Orinda Theatre, Orinda. Opens January 17, Davis Varsity Theatre, Davis, Tower Theatre, Sacramento, 3Below Theaters, San Jose, AMC Mercado 20, Santa Clara, Rialto Cinemas Sebastopol, Sebastopol. Three 2025 Oscar nominations: Best PIcture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.