History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes, or so the saying goes by Mark Twain. We find ourselves in an interesting time full of economic uncertainty, rising inequality, and atrocities happening overseas and we ask ourselves, it couldn’t possibly happen again? Could it?
I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles) reveals one of these moments in time that we could use as something to reflect upon. It is the story of Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres) living an idyllic yet challenging life in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. The military coup d’etat by the Brazilian Armed Forces happened six years earlier. The military occupation shadow hovers ever-present in daily life until it took centre stage.
The Paivas had just returned to Rio, as her husband Rubens (Selton Mello) had self-exiled since the coup. The Swiss ambassador was kidnapped by a far-left revolutionary movement, further adding to the powderkeg of political tension in the country.
In January of 71, Rubens was then arrested and disappeared, leaving Eunice to deal with the 5 kids while waiting for information about what was happening to her husband. Eunice required information from the government about where they were keeping Rubens and what they were doing it him. She was herself, arrested and tortured for 12 days. Her teenage daughter was also arrested and released in 24 hours.
The film has a documentary feel, sprinkling in 16mm film taken within the story world creates a nostalgic feeling of a carefree, summer vacation until the authorities upend the Paiva’s lives.
The arrest and torture is not fetishised or glorified, and Eunice, throughout the whole ordeal is a paragon of stoic virtue, only breaking down when she gets home and can have a cathartic release.
The film then turns into a search for justice, what happened to her husband? Who is responsible? Who committed the crimes? Who will be held accountable for their actions?
This is no holiday story with grand stakes and spectacular set pieces, it is a quiet contemplation about relentless and constant effort. The years and years of effort and pressure that Eunice puts on the powers that be to reveal what happened and to have people held accountable.
In life, there is seldom a moment where the hero swoops in to save the day, it is the quiet constituency that moves us forward. Sometimes we need to look back and what we did wrong to see what we might be repeating in the present and I’m Still Here is a good example of this.
Note: I sometimes hate when films have their characters say the title of the film but in this one, I was looking forward to Euncie saying it but she never did.
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe
10 February 2025
