I’m Nonetheless Right here tempts viewers right into a comforting lull earlier than pulling the rug out from underneath them.
The start of I’m Nonetheless Right here is a cautious entice. Within the first 20 minutes of his new movie, the director Walter Salles introduces the Paiva household, a vibrant Brazilian clan primarily based in Rio de Janeiro. It’s 1970, and we watch the seven members of the family—Eunice (performed by Fernanda Torres), Rubens (Selton Mello), and their 5 children—eat, chatter, hit the seaside, and go dancing. Their bond feels palpably heat and reasonable, a comforting lull that Salles is tempting the viewers into. Regardless of understanding that the story relies on wrenching, real-life occasions, I began to hope towards hope that perhaps nothing too plotty would occur—that as a substitute, I’d simply get to spend a few hours with this beautiful, buzzing unit.
However the vaguest sense of political instability hums within the background of the Paivas’ sandy idyll. In 1964, a navy coup overthrew Brazil’s populist democracy, through which Rubens had served as a left-wing congressman. Almost seven years on, the nation remains to be underneath martial regulation. In the future, as Eunice and Rubens are taking part in backgammon and sorting by means of outdated images, the police knock on the door; they curtly take Rubens away for questioning. “I’ll be again for the soufflé,” he tells his spouse calmly. On reflection, it’s probably the most devastating line within the film: He gained’t see her or their youngsters ever once more.
What occurred to Rubens Paiva is well-known in Brazil. Rubens was certainly one of many voters disappeared by the nation’s navy dictatorship over the 21-year regime—suspected Communists the navy whisked away, by no means to return. The federal government admitted to Rubens’s dying at its palms solely a long time after the actual fact, and his physique nonetheless hasn’t been discovered. His case turned significantly infamous due to Eunice’s years-long efforts to attract consideration to it: She turned a widely known human-rights lawyer, campaigning for victims of political repression. However what occurred to Rubens remains to be a matter of controversy in a rustic the place far-right politicians, till not too long ago, held energy.
Salles may have taken a blunt, agitprop method to rendering these occasions, primarily devoting the movie’s display time to Eunice’s struggle for recognition. However the director avoids framing I’m Nonetheless Right here as an “inspirational true story” centered on Eunice’s authorized profession; loads of good articles and books have been written about it. As an alternative, he confines that data to a couple title playing cards that roll earlier than the top credit. Salles’s tackle the Paivas’ saga is subtler and, for my part, extra profitable than this way of biopic. He creates a quieter type of historic drama that lives within the aftermath of Rubens’s disappearance, a scenario that typically feels eerily abnormal. By highlighting Eunice’s function as a mother or father, Salles pushes viewers towards contemplating the mundanity of residing underneath a dictatorship—and the gnawing nightmare of missing management within the face of apparent evil. The years roll on for Eunice and the youngsters, however their on a regular basis bickering or meal prep turns into outlined by an absence.
That unsettling feeling is communicated by Torres’s devastating, real efficiency. She gained a shocking however well-deserved Golden Globe earlier this month—a shocker not solely as a result of I’m Nonetheless Right here is comparatively small-scale, but in addition as a result of Torres’s work is mild on the histrionics that usually attract awards votes. Following their preliminary go to, armed males then take Eunice and her second-eldest daughter to a mysterious location, the place they’re interrogated about each Rubens and their very own Communist ties. Eunice stays imprisoned for nearly two weeks earlier than she’s launched with out a lot clarification; she returns house and instantly tries her greatest to challenge an air of normalcy. All of the whereas, Eunice is searching for solutions as to her husband’s whereabouts. The youngsters are sufficiently old to concentrate on their household’s ordeal, however their shared anxiousness doesn’t have an effect on the restrained ambiance. A lot of what happens from then on feels sweetly, nearly dully relatable.
I’m Nonetheless Right here’s considerate perspective has resonated in Brazil, the place it has turn into the highest-grossing home movie because the coronavirus pandemic. Popularity of Salles’s diligent, low-key filmmaking dates again to his worldwide breakthrough, 1998’s Central Station; its star (and Torres’s mom) Fernanda Montenegro acquired a Finest Actress Oscar nomination. Salles has continued to favor a muted tack all through his profession—even when making a Hollywood horror film, such because the largely forgotten (and considerably underrated) Darkish Water.
Maybe including to the native hype for I’m Nonetheless Right here is that it marks the top of Salles’s directorial hiatus. His final effort, an underwhelming adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Highway, premiered again in 2012. I’m Nonetheless Right here is a really worthy comeback, and definitely his strongest work since 2004’s The Bike Diaries, a portrayal of Che Guevara’s early years touring Latin America. That movie, like this one, wore its political message on its sleeve with out overdoing it. Salles hasn’t at all times nailed this delicate steadiness (once more, his moderately limp On the Highway), however on this case, it pays off superbly.
I’m Nonetheless Right here’s most spectacular magic trick, although, is a bit of meta-casting close to its conclusion. The timeline leaps ahead to the 12 months 2014, introducing the 95-year-old Montenegro because the older model of Eunice. What occurs throughout these closing moments is as tempered and simple as the whole lot that precedes them: The motion boils down to a couple emotions vaguely flickering throughout Eunice’s face—however that’s all Salles must ship a ultimate emotional hammer blow.