IFFK 2024: Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here speaks to the current times

I'm Still Here: A powerful film about a family's struggle against a brutal dictatorship, showcased at IFFK.

A good part of the initial half of Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here is filled with joyful scenes, of a family having fun at the beach, enjoying get-togethers with friends at home and dancing to their favourite records. But, just at the corner of these images lie the hints of a creeping, violent crackdown led by the military dictatorship that had taken over Brazil in the late 1960s. The opening film of the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is Brazil’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

At the centre of I’m Still Here is no ordinary family, which could be easily swept away by those in power. Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a former congressman and a civil engineer, and his family, which is clearly among the upper crust of Brazilian society, do not seem to be in much of a danger, or so they think, even when they see military trucks zooming by the beach and uniformed men conduct invasive checks on regular citizens on the roads.

When the midnight knock comes, it does not arrive with a bang, but almost a whimper, with a few plainclothes men taking Rubens away supposedly for a deposition, while a couple of others stay back with the family, sharing their food. Based on the real life story of the unlawful detention and murder of dissenter Rubens Paiva by the Brazilian military dictatorship, it becomes a cautionary tale to remain vigilant against autocratic, oppressive forces from gaining power.

From the point of the arrest, it becomes the story of Eunice Paiva, Rubens’s partner, who is a picture of resilience and grace all through, as she fruitlessly searches for her husband for years, coming into her own as a human rights activist fighting for more than just her husband. Fernanda Torres pulls off one of the most immaculate performances of the year, with her mother Fernanda Montenegro playing her in the old age in the emotional epilogue. Salles pushes up all the levers of emotional intensity in the final half. Despite the knowledge of how it turned out in real life, we are till the end invested in how the family navigates through various phases, even decades after his disappearance.

Two decades after Salles made The Motorcycle Diaries on Che Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado’s life-changing road trip across South America, he comes up with a highly political film that speaks to the current times.