‘I'm Still Here' tells the powerful real-life story of resilience under military dictatorship
Selton Mellon and Fernanda Torres in "I'm Still Here."
Alile Onawale/Sony Pictures Classics
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For the first 40 minutes or so, we also get to know Eunice and Rubens, their five children and their housekeeper, Maria José (Pri Helena). The youngest kids, Marcelo (Guilherme Silveira), Babiu (Cora Mora), and Nalu (Bárbara Luz) are blissfully oblivious of the ramifications of living under military rule.
Their oldest, Veroca (Valentina Herszage), is fast becoming politically aware, to the point where she's sent to London to keep her out of trouble. The dramatic story arc of daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) reveals the dangers Eunice feared Veroca would face.
The family lives across the street from a gorgeous, white-sand beach with pristine waters — an idyllic locale lushly shot by cinematographer Adrian Teijido. (His occasional use of Super-8 film is also visually intriguing.) The opening scene puts us in the water with Eunice as she floats in meditation. Her kids play on the beach, eventually finding a stray mutt they name after Veroca's boyfriend, Pimpão (Caio Horowicz).
This section unfolds leisurely, with scenes of parties, get-togethers, and beach volleyball games. But Salles never lets us get too comfortable. A military helicopter breaks the tranquillity of Eunice's swim. Veroca and her friends are stopped in a tunnel and manhandled by soldiers looking for the kidnappers of several foreign ambassadors. And Rubens takes secret phone calls, the kind that would surely arouse suspicion.
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Fernanda Torres as Eunice in "I'm Still Here."
Adrian Teijido/Sony Pictures Classics
'I'm Still Here' takes a darker turn once Rubens is kidnapped by strange men from the government and plainclothes guards start surveilling the house. Eunice and Eliana are also removed from the house, with the former being tortured for days. Though these scenes are understated, they're still harrowing.
Salles is more concerned with exploring Eunice's resolve and desire for justice than showing explicit brutality, as evidenced by the two jumps in time the film employs in its final moments. We check in on the family 25 years later, in 1996, and again in 2014, when Torres's own real-life mother, Fernanda Montenegro, appears in an effective cameo.
Torres does an excellent job here. We watch Eunice struggle to keep the truth from her youngest kids while simultaneously downplaying Eliana's fears that her father is dead. Later, we see her make personal and professional choices that lead her closer to a small but effective modicum of closure.
The Paiva family, in 2014, in "I'm Still Here."
Adrian Teijido/Sony Pictures Classics
For her performance, Torres was nominated for the best actress Oscar, the second best actress nod for a Brazilian actor. (Montenegro received the first, for Salles's masterpiece, 1998's 'Central Station.') In an even bigger surprise, 'I'm Still Here' was also nominated for best picture alongside its expected best international feature nod.
I wonder if the political timeliness of this film spoke to voters. Because, at one point, Eunice asks a witness who was kidnapped along with Rubens for help. 'My husband is in danger,' she pleads. The witness responds 'We're all in danger.' In today's environment, that exchange ought to hit a nerve.
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★★★½
I'M STILL HERE
Directed by Walter Salles. Written by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva. Starring Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Pri Helena, Guilherme Silveira, Cora Mora, Barbara Luz, Valentina Herszage, Luiza Kosovski, Caio Horowicz, Fernanda Montenegro. At Coolidge Corner, AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport. 137 minutes. PG-13 (profanity, torture, brief nudity)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
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