A woman swims in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the beach at Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He stops his strokes because of the roar of the blades of a helicopter flying over the water: the shadow of a premonition barely crosses his gaze, but life is still happy, even though the country is in the hands of military regime for some years now. It is 1970. She is Eunice Paiva, wife of Rubens Paiva, engineer and former deputy of the Brazilian Labour Party, exiled after the coup d'état of 1964, then returned to the country and retired to civilian life. Together they have five children and acomfortable existence in a nice apartment a few meters from the beach. They are very close and to the dictatorship of the military they oppose an intense and fulfilled family life.
The house is open to friends, the children grow up free to cultivate their passions – sports on the beach, Blow-Up at the cinema, Lennon, Gainsbourg and Veloso on the record player – but guided by attentive and, when necessary, authoritative parents. Meanwhile, the regime that took over the country, put outlaw the parties politicians and made of arrests and disappearances of civilians its rule, becomes more aggressive and many begin to leave for London, or Paris. They, however, resist: they plan the new house and on the screen the Super 8 shots that Veronica, the eldest daughter, makes of the family members run while each of them chooses on the model which will be their room. But "no one will have a room for themselves", as Eunice will soon announce to her children, because one morning Rubens is taken from his home by soldiers in plain clothes and disappears.
Unlike other films (The Night of the Broken Pencils, Garage Olympus) who narrated the events from the point of view of civilians who were tortured and made to disappear, often thrown into the sea from helicopters (like the one in the opening scene?), I'm still here chooses to tell the lives of those who remainCinematically, the transition is marked by a symbolic change of light in the frame.
The house, once open and bright, is plunged into darkness: the curtains closed, the soldiers guarding the wife and children, the rooms emptied of the life they had been overflowing with until a short time before. If the before is light and the after, darkness, it is also thanks to the courage and resistance of individuals, Salles suggests, that humanity can look beyond the abomination of dictatorship. Rubens is arrested because he had the courage to oppose the regime, because "we cannot just stand by and watch, especially those of us who know everyone", as her husband's closest friend explains to Eunice, after his disappearance.
And Eunice will do her part too: although at first she is not sure she can understand Rubens' choice, who, by choosing not to remain inert, has put their lives and their safety at risk, she initially becomes landmark unshakable for her children yet to grow up and then, in turn, a figure of public importance. In fact, she will graduate in law and become a human rights lawyer.
Based on real events and the autobiographical book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the youngest of the five sons of the deceased former deputy, it is the story of an exemplary family that makes joy and laughter an act of resistance. The story staged by Salles is personal – also in the strict sense, because in Rio he was a neighbor of the Paivas and a friend of their children – and collective, because it is the story of a country. The actors contribute with their exceptional interpretations (Selton Mello also resembles Rubens physically) to the harmonious composition of this powerful chronicle.
Fernanda Torres, who masterfully plays the protagonist, has already won a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar. Just like her mother, the great actress Fernanda Montenegro, the main character of another very famous film by Rooms, Central do Brasil, and here she plays the elderly Eunice (they look very similar and it looked like Torres herself with the makeup).
I'm still here It is cinema that shines with the life that for Eunice, her children and all Brazilians resists under the black tide of dictatorships and absolutisms.
I came from far away, sings Erasmo Carlos in one of the beautiful pieces (Dar Um Jeito, Meu Amigo is Precise) that Salles makes the (supporting) column of the film, the journey has been so long, I have encountered obstacles, but still here I am and with the things I have seen, I will not remain silent.
In the room
Original title: I'm still here, Production: Brazil, France 2024, Director: Walter Salles, Screenplay: Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Editing: Affonso Gonçalves, Photography: Adrian Teijido, Main cast: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Valentina Herszage, Fernanda Montenegro, Running time: 137'.
Nominated for three Oscars (Best Film, Best International Film and Best Actress in a Leading Role), it tells the story of the Brazilian desaparecidos from the perspective of those who remain, through the (true) story of an exemplary family driven by civil commitment.
