Ainda Estou Aqui / I'm Still Here

Walter Salles: Ainda Estou Aqui / I'm Still Here (BR/FR 2024) Selton Mello (Rubens Paiva), Fernanda Torres (Eunice Paiva), Guilherme Silveira (Marcelo Rubens Paiva) and Cora Mora (Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva).

Je suis toujours là / Olen yhä täällä

    BR/FR 2024. Société de production : Video Filmes, RT Features, MACT

Réalisation : Walter Salles

Scénario : Murilo Hauser et Heitor Lorega

Photographie : Adrian Teijido - couleur - 1.85 - 35 mm/8 mm

Décors : Carlos Conti

Costumes : Cláudia Kopke assistée d'Helena Byington

Musique : Warren Ellis

Son : Laura Zimmermann — Dolby Digital

Montage : Affonso Gonçalves

Laboratoire de Post-Production : Transperfect (Paris/Joinville)

    Cast

Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva

Fernanda Montenegro as Eunice Paiva (older)

Selton Mello as Rubens Paiva

Guilherme Silveira as Marcelo Rubens Paiva

Antonio Saboia as Marcelo Rubens Paiva (adult)

Valentina Herszage as Vera Paiva

Maria Manoella as Vera Paiva (older)

Luiza Kosovski as Eliana Paiva

Marjorie Estiano as Eliana Paiva (older)

Barbara Luz as Nalu Paiva

Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha as Nalu Paiva (older)

Cora Mora as Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva

Olívia Torres as Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva (adult)

Pri Helena as Maria José (Zezé)

Humberto Carrão as Félix

Maeve Jinkings as Dalva Gasparian

Caio Horowicz as Ricardo Gomes Pimpão

Camila Márdila as Dalal Achcar

Charles Fricks as Fernando Gasparian

Luana Nastas as Helena Gasparian

Isadora Ruppert as Laura Gasparian

Daniel Dantas as Raul Ryff

Maitê Padilha as Cristina

Carla Ribas as Martha

Dan Stulbach as Bocaiuva Cunha

Helena Albergaria as Beatriz Bandeira

    Durée : 135 minutes

    Genre : drame biographique, historique

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere : 1 Sep 2024 Venice

Brazilian premiere: 7 Nov 2024

French premiere : 15 janvier 2025 (sortie nationale) - Studiocanal (France) - sous-titres francais: Evaldo De Medeiros &

Finland : 14 March 2025

    Vu samedi, le 1 mars 2025, MK2 Bastille (Côté Fg Saint-Antoine), 5 faubourg Saint-Antoine, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

Plot from Wikipedia: "In 1970, former congressman Rubens Paiva returns to Rio de Janeiro, after six years of self-exile following the revocation of his tenure at the outset of the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. Living in an idyllic house near Leblon beach with his wife Eunice and their five children, Paiva returns to his civil career while continuing to support expatriates without discussing his political activities with his family."

"Following the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador to Brazil by revolutionary movements, the country faces a looming political instability. A military raid takes place in Paiva's house, resulting in his arrest and disappearance in January 1971. Eunice's public inquiries on Rubens' whereabouts results in her arrest and torture for 12 days. Eliana, their teenage daughter, is also imprisoned but is released after 24 hours. After moderate media outrage ignited by family and friends, Eunice is unofficially informed of Rubens' fate. The Paiva family moves to São Paulo after selling their home, anticipating a new start close to Eunice's maternal family."

"25 years later, in 1996, Eunice receives from the Brazilian state — now once again a democracy — Rubens Paiva's official death certificate. In 2014, during a family gathering surrounded by her children and grandchildren, the now 85-year-old Eunice lives with advanced Alzheimer's disease. When a news report about the National Truth Commission addresses Rubens' case, a distressed Eunice appears to remember her past."

"Closing title cards reveal that Paiva was murdered at the DOI-CODI headquarters between 21 and 22 January 1971. Five people were identified as responsible, yet they were never prosecuted. Eunice graduated from law school at age 48. She became one of few experts on Indigenous Rights in Brazil, serving as a counselor for the Federal Government, the World Bank, and the United Nations. She died in 2018 at the age of 89."

AA: There was a military dictatorship in Brazil in 1964-1985. The democratically elected president João Goulart was overthrown in a military coup d'état backed by the United States. The military regime practiced censorship and committed human rights abuses including torture, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. Freedom of speech and political opposition were stifled. In 1988 Brazil returned officially to democracy.

Walter Salles's I'm Still Here is his best film of the ones I have seen and one of the greatest Brazilian films. It is a deeply moving saga based on the true story of the Paiva family. The tender and vibrant family atmosphere is disrupted by the kidnapping of the father Rubens and the arrest and torture of the mother Eunice. The eldest daughter Vera, who has witnessed violence on the street, is safe in London, staying with the Gasparians, the family's best friends, in exile in England. 

Salles conveys the atmosphere of everyday fear and surveillance without expressionistic emphasis. After the disappearance of Rubens, Eunice becomes the head of the family. Fernanda Torres conveys in an outstanding performance the ordeals of a mother of five who decides to leave the home in Rio de Janeiro and move to São Paulo. She also resumes her studies and becomes a lawyer, defending the rights of indigenous peoples and the victims of the dictatorship.

In a moving coda in the old Eunice is in a wheelchair with Alzheimer's, surrounded by the large family with children and grandchildren. She is portrayed by Fernanda Montenegro, the grande dame of Brazilian stage and screen, also familiar from Salles's breakthrough film Central do Brasil.