INTERNATIONAL CINEMA: I’M STILL HERE
Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here tells the harrowing true story of Rubens Paiva, a Brazilian congressman who forcibly disappeared during the country’s military dictatorship. The film follows his wife, Eunice, as she fights to uncover the truth while raising their five children under oppressive rule. We’re pleased to host this powerful film, screening with English subtitles.
Walter Salles’ (Central Station, 1998; The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004) first narrative feature in twelve years is an all-too-timely account of life under authoritarian rule. The filmmaker knew the Paiva family in his youth and the sense of intimacy he conveys, along with the ring of authenticity that permeates every moment, immerses us in this era and the minutiae of the family’s increasingly precarious existence. At the drama’s heart is Eunice – stunningly portrayed by Fernanda Torres (and in later life by Torres’ own mother, Fernanda Montenegro) – whose steely determination to seek the truth, when justice is cruelly absent, is an act of impossibly brave rebellion against the forces of oppression.
