Film Review: I’m Still Here

I’m Still Here
Director: Walter Sales
VideoFilmes, RT Features, MACT Productions
In Theaters: 02.07.25

While it may not seem like it, I’d really like to review at least a couple of movies in a row without analyzing their themes through the lens of the new presidential administration, but I’m going to tell you right now that I’m Still Here is not going to be one of them.

In 1970, former congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello, Four Days in September, The Clown) returns to Rio de Janeiro after six years in self-exile, resuming his civil career while quietly supporting expatriates during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Amid rising political unrest, he is arrested and disappears in January 1971. When his wife, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres, Love Me Forever or Never), inquires about him, she is detained and tortured for 12 days before ultimately being released. Left to raise their five children alone, Eunice must face the reality that her husband isn’t coming back, and the fact that fighting for answers under the current regime requires treading lightly in order to protect herself and her family.

Adapted from the memoir Ainda Estou Aqui by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the son of Eunice and Rubens Paiva, I’m Still Here is a vivid and, at times, terrifying portrait of life under a totalitarian regime. It’s all too easy to realize the jarring relevance of this story in a time when we are seeing direct reprisals against American citizens and former government officials for supporting viewpoints that weren’t in the personal interest of the current president. It should hit uncomfortably close to home for American audiences who are able to see the obvious parallels (those who aren’t going to see the comparison will probably have too much difficulty with the subtitles to make it worth their time anyway). Salles builds tension the surest way possible — by keeping his characters real enough to become invested in them, and the sequence where Rubens is arrested in his own home in the middle of the night is all the more intense for the lack of melodramatic flourishes. The family is firmly established as real and relatable, and while they are strong, brave people, they are also normal people thrust into a situation where their options are extremely limited. 

Torres gives a marvelous performance in the role of Eunice, one that has earned her an Academy Award nomination for “Best Actress in a Leading Role,” and she’s a well-deserved frontrunner. There are far too few films where a wife and mother is portrayed as such a heroic figure, and Eunice is a hero who fights without weapons or violence — instead with brains, heart and a refusal to capitulate. This is the sort of fact-based historical film that forces the viewer to wonder what they would do in this situation, and there’s no exaggeration in saying that we’ve taken a significant step closer to being a nation where finding oneself in this situation feels more plausible than it did when I first saw the film in December.

I’m Still Here can easily be seen as depressing, upsetting, empowering or inspiring, because it’s all of those things combined into one urgently important story. A moving portrait of resilience in impossible times, I’m Still Here is truly essential viewing. —Patrick Gibbs

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