I'm Still Here, Brazil's hope for Oscars glory, focuses on the country's military dictatorship years (1965-1985) but is also very much "a film about the present," says its lead actress Fernanda Torres.
The movie, which won for best screenplay at the 2024 Venice film festival, has proved popular with Brazilian audiences, and scores a lofty 90 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregation website.
To applause and tears, some three million Brazilians have already seen this film, making it the biggest success in Latin American cinema in 2024.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17. I'm Still Here is on the shortlist to compete in the Best International Film category. It is also up for a Golden Globe award on Sunday.
Ainda estou aqui, as it is titled in its native language, is based on the true story of Rubens Paiva, a leftist progressive politician who disappeared under the dictatorship he opposed.
It looks at the fight his wife Eunice Paiva waged to find out what happened to him after he was abducted by regime agents in 1971. His body has never been found.
Brazil's military dictatorship was responsible for the deaths and disappearances of more than 400 people, with thousands more tortured and illegal detained, according to the National Truth Commission that investigated its rights violations. But many of the military regime's crimes were never prosecuted.
With I'm Still Here, director Walter Salles makes a return after a decade-long absence, and amid much anticipation after the critical success of his 1998 film Central Station and 2004's The Motorcycle Diaries.
Torres' own mother, 95-year-old Oscar nominee Fernanda Montenegro, makes an appearance at the end of the film portraying an elderly Eunice Paiva.
The harshness of the events contrasts with the film's setting. In a warm Rio de Janeiro, the vitality of Eunice's home with her five children is recreated on Leblon beach, which at that time was filled with small houses instead of the tall buildings that currently dominate the coast.
Here is what Salles and Torres told AFP about the film in a joint interview as Hollywood's awards season kicks into high gear:
Past and present
Although it deals with historical events, does the film contain a current resonance?
Salles: "When we started the project in 2016, we thought it would be an opportunity to look at the past to understand where we come from. But given the far right's rise in Brazil, from 2017, we realised the film also works to understand the present. Today there is a project of power based on erasing memory. In the face of this, artistic expressions gain importance."
Torres: "It's a film about the present. We had a president [Jair Bolsonaro, between 2019 and 2022] who praised a regime torturer and believed the military saved Brazil from communism. Ainda estou aqui calls for an important reflection, as we see that the basements of the dictatorship are still open. It touches the hearts of various people. Whoever sees the film thinks, 'This is wrong, there was no reason to persecute this family'."
What effect can it have on non-Brazilian viewers?
Salles: "In international festivals we got similar reactions as in Brazil, because we're not the only country seeing how fragile democracy is, or living or having lived through the trauma of having an extreme right wing.
"Sean Penn saw the film the day of Donald Trump's election, and when he presented it in Los Angeles, he said Eunice Paiva's smile was an example of resistance for what's coming in the United States."
Torres: "We live in a volatile world, where new technologies are changing social relationships. In moments like these, we see an uptick in a desire for an authoritarian government to bring back order.
"Through the perspective of this family, the film shows what that means in a country with a violent government that suspends civil rights."
The film tells a sad story, but there are moments when the viewer smiles. Why?
Torres: "The film is hopeful, both for its very existence and for the resilience and joy of that family. It narrates a tragedy, but you don’t leave the cinema without hope. On the contrary, you think: These people resisted, survived, they exist."
The film begins with a meticulous reconstruction of life in the Paiva household in 1970s Rio de Janeiro. Where does that evocation come from?
Salles: "These were memories of my teenage years. My girlfriend around age 13 or 14 was friends with one of Paiva's daughters so I spent a lot of time with them.
"In their house, it was another world, with free political discussion, where you could talk about censored books and records, where you dreamed of a more inclusive country."
"But I also discovered a violence I didn't know about. The day Rubens was abducted, never to be seen again, left a stark impression when everything changed for everybody who was in that microcosm. Whatever innocence we had we lost that day."
How do you handle the expectations of aspiring for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film?
Salles: "Awards work to bring more people in to see movies, so I'm happy in that sense. If it happens [that we get nominated], it would be great. If not, life goes on. My principle is that someone who is optimistic is badly informed."
by Facundo Fernández Barrio, AFP
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