I'm Still Here

Fernanda Torres ignites this Oscar-winning drama from Walter Salles, a triumph of hope over tyranny.

On a sun-soaked street in 1970s Brazil, the Paiva household bursts with life and love, despite living under the shadow of a tightening military dictatorship. When a violent abduction sanctioned by the government uproots their world, Eunice, a mother of five, must reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family that will shape their future for decades.

Based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Walter Salles’ (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries) film is packed with detail and emotion, memories of the director’s childhood adding more heart to the storytelling. Anchored by a tour-de-force, Oscar-nominated performance from Fernanda Torres, alongside screen legend Fernanda Montenegra as her elderly mother, Salles’ film is a stirring, deeply human ode to resilience and activism in the face of violent injustice. A dark chapter of Brazil’s history is captured with poignancy and resonance in a film that provokes rage and grief at the injustices faced. Yet it leaves the audience with the quiet, dignified optimism of its central character.