I’m Still Here (Brasil, França e Espanha, 2024)
Original title: Ainda Estou Aqui
Director: Walter Salles
Writer/Screenplay: Walter Salles
Main cast: Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro, Selton Mello, Maeve Jenkins, Antonio Saboia, Marjorie Estiano e Humberto Carrão
Runtime: 136 minutes (2°16’)
Twelve years after the release of his last film, Na Estrada (On the Road, 2012), an adaptation of the book with the same title, Brazilian director Walter Salles returns to work with another literary adaptation, but this time in his homeland. Retelling the story of Marcelo Rubens Paiva's book about his mother, Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva, he uses all his expertise in audiovisual to talk about one of the most important women in Brazil's recent history.
Marcelo Rubens Paiva's book is already exceptional in its treatment of the mother figure, offering a perspective from someone very close to her and being able to include his own memories of his father in the work. He takes advantage of the situation of being an excellent author in a privileged position to write a treatise that mixes personal memory, Brazilian history and the subject of memory itself and how it can be lost over time. And Walter Salles goes on the same path, adding his cinematic quality to this story, which he has known personally since he was young. For those who are not familiar with it, it’s a story about the consequences of Rubens Paiva's abduction by the Brazilian dictatorship and the serious consequences for the woman whose husband disappeared.
Early in the film, when the characters are not yet aware of what awaits them, a sugary image of their lives is created, recounting some of the episodes present in the books. But even at this first moment, it becomes clear how much the director is committed to telling a Brazilian story, with an aesthetic and photography reminiscent of Brazilian New Cinema (Cinema Novo), with a certain agility in the editing and texture in the image. We then meet a privileged family, who lives near the beach and who, despite the father's political history, doesn’t know much about what’s happening in the country, except for brief reports on the radio and television. Of course, little by little we realize that this is just a façade put on by the parents for their younger children, so that they do not suffer with something that is beyond their reach.
As the plot progresses, these small experiments with the image take a more sober, linear and objective path, but doing so in a way that the aesthetic change also relates to the greater seriousness of the narrative is sensible, and manages to convey the family's feeling that the good, peaceful times of the past are over. The scenes become more direct as the situation becomes more complex. And so, as the film approaches its end and regains a certain mobility, the form also undergoes a transformation, with more sunny scenes but the same simple editing, creating an arc for the aesthetic itself.
Fernanda Torres' performance also needs to be mentioned as one of the elements that make the film a success. Creating a character based on a real person is already a challenge, but portraying her from the moment she’s happily running along the beach to when she’s recreating her life after her husband's disappearance is even more complicated. She manages to strip herself of her own self in order to become this woman who was a mother, wife, lawyer, activist, and many other things in life, and delivers a fantastic performance.
The film plays with the issue of memory and forgetfulness present in the book in a more free manner, largely based on the soundtrack of those who were forgotten during the dictatorship and only became heroes after its end. Still, there’s a slightly deeper reflection with the final scene that left part of the audience in tears. Even for those unfamiliar with Brazilian history, it’s a powerful reflection made by a sensitive and moving performance. The final credits, which take place inside the empty house, are also an invitation to remember the empty spaces of our memories.
Even straying a little from the book due to its narrative linearity, the film manages to achieve the same kind of impact. If she were still alive, Eunice would be very proud to see her story told.
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