I’m Still Here It’s been very popular. He won the screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival and was chosen by Brazil to be its Oscar representative. And it has also won several awards at other lesser-known festivals. And, of course, many people talk about the possibility of Fernanda Torres competing for the Oscar for best actress. Honestly, it’s going to be a long road to get there – and there’s a good chance that won’t happen. But I believe that the film’s chances of competing for the foreign film award are very high. The studio’s lobbying is done well, and on top of that, the film is very good. THEI’m still here opens in cinemas on a normal circuit this week, but has already had screenings at the São Paulo Film Festival and the Rio Festival
The film is based on a well-known true story described in the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, which is real. The story takes place in the early 1970s, during the harshest period of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Despite addressing the regime, the film’s point of view is that of the Paiva family. After the father, Rubens (Selton Mello) disappears, the life of the mother Eunice (Fernanda Torres) and her five children changes completely. And Eunice fights against everything and everyone to find out what happened to her husband.
What did I find?
The film is divided into three parts. In the first, we see the family happy, but with the shadow of the threatening political situation hanging over everyone. It’s a situation of uninterrupted tension that contrasts with the family’s happiness, especially because you know what’s going to happen. The second part begins with the prison situation. We don’t see what happens to Rubens. We only follow Eunice’s journey when she is also “brought in for interrogation” with a cloth over her head that prevents her from seeing where she is being taken with one of her daughters. And also when she goes to a cell without the right to know what happened to her daughter or her husband. The third part shows not only Eunice’s struggle to find out what happened to her husband, but also to take care of her family alone.
What I admired most about the film is the tone of the story, a tribute to Eunice herself, who handled everything with great class, and without any “messiness”. Eunice is a sensational character, and Fernanda Torres is sensational. His tone of voice is always the same, but the whirlwind of emotions passing through his eyes is completely noticeable. A beautiful work. And it’s interesting to see how she’s becoming more and more like her mother, Fernanda Montenegro. This one, in fact, makes a very special appearance, at the end, as the older Eunice. Fernanda Torres joked that at international festivals everyone thought it was her, aged by makeup. Haha!
Walter Salles
Walter Salles is a great director, who hadn’t directed a feature film for 12 years. There are brilliant moments in his work, when he switches between narrative languages, such as Super 8, documentary, etc. Everything to the sound of classics from the era of Caetano, Tom Zé, among others. The script also has some great period jokes, after all, only those who lived there know that we used Coca-Cola as a tanner, right? Lol! Jokes aside, the film is 2h04 long, but you don’t feel the time passing – everything is very well resolved, it’s no wonder it won the prize in Venice. It’s worth seeing!
Eliane Munhoz
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