Content warning: This piece contains spoilers for “I’m Still Here.”
In the shadow of Brazil’s military dictatorship, Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) endured an imaginable loss. After her husband, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), was abducted, tortured and killed by the regime in 1971, Eunice was left to piece together her family’s shattered life. Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” chronicles the story of the Paiva family—blurring the line between memory and loss, as Eunice searches for truth in a time of fear. In challenging times, the film serves as a call to reject a future shaped by violence and oppression.
In the movie’s first half hour, Salles immerses the screen in the Paiva family’s memories of better times—dinners with friends, the warmth of Ruben’s towards his five children and sunlit days in Rio de Janeiro. Shot in intimate 8mm, these golden-hued scenes evoke a joyful past while emphasizing the importance of family happiness and the deep, shared love that binds them together. They live in a house where the door is always open, welcoming the fresh breeze of the sea and a constant flow of friends. It feels like a summer dream.
This scenic opening lays a powerful foundation, ensuring their latter suffering is deeply felt. One day, a few “policemen” knock on their door, wanting to take Rubens away for interrogation. They close all the house’s windows, casting the once-bright home into an eerie darkness. The next day, Eunice is taken away for interrogation, spending twelve days in captivity. When she returns, the house is marked by Rubens’ absence, a void that now dominates her life. Days, weeks and months pass, and the hope for Ruben’s return slowly fades, along with the joy of their once-bright future.
Salles’ film captures Eunice Paiva’s grief and determination to uncover the truth. But to frame “I’m Still Here” solely as a period drama or a depiction of the Paiva family’s fight against a fascist regime is to miss its heart—Eunice Paiva herself. Through a towering performance by Fernanda Torres, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Film, Eunice emerges as a woman who refuses to fall flat as a victim. In a story that could easily descend into melodrama, Torres instead delivers a restrained but commanding portrayal of a character who anchors the film with a quiet resolve. Eunice becomes the family’s new cornerstone, refusing to relinquish her right to the truth. Even as the military regime obsessively attempts to corrupt and intimidate her at every turn, Eunice fights to preserve a semblance of normalcy for her children despite their father’s haunting absence.
While Eunice is consumed by her irreparable loss, she refuses to let grief dictate her life. In 1996, the Brazilian government—now a democracy—officially issued a death certificate for Rubens Paiva, acknowledging his death, though his body was never recovered. As the film’s time jump illustrates, the Paiva family persevered, clinging to the right to mourn their patriarch on their terms. In one of the final scenes, as the Paiva children sift through old photographs, one asks, “When did you bury dad?”—a metaphor for the moment they knew their father would never return.
Ultimately, “I’m Still Here” is a film where memory is a weapon: it preserves what is worth fighting for in the future and the legacies of those the regime sought to erase. At its core is Eunice’s journey—a woman transformed by loss but unwilling to surrender her husband’s memory to silence. The Paiva family is not a mere symbol of grief but of quiet resistance, and through Fernanda Torres’ unforgettable performance as Eunice—and Fernanda Montenegro’s incredible last scene as the character—their legacy becomes enduring.
Rating: 5/5
“I’m Still Here” will have a selected release starting Jan. 15 through Sony Pictures Classics.
