Winner of the Best Screenplay prize at the Venice Film Festival, this film, which will be released on January 15 in France, has already attracted millions of spectators in Brazilian theaters.
The story of I’m still here, Brazilian film which is aiming for Oscar nominations, takes place mainly during the military regime (1965-1985), but it is « a film about the present », assures its main actress Fernanda Torres in an interview with AFP. Winner of the Best Screenplay prize at the Venice Film Festival, this film, which was released on January 15 in France, attracted millions of spectators in Brazilian theaters.
It is based on the true story of Rubens Paiva, a former left-wing deputy who disappeared under the military dictatorship, and recounts the fight of his wife, Eunice Paiva, to know the truth about his fate, after his kidnapping by agents of the regime. in 1971. With I’m still heredirector Walter Salles marks his return to the screens after a decade of absence and successes like Central Brazil (1998) or Travel diaries (2004). Fernanda Montenegro, 95, mother of Fernanda Torres and Oscar nominee for Central Brazil (1998), makes an appearance at the end of the film, depicting Eunice Paiva in her old age.
Cross-interview with Fernanda Torres and Walter Salles.
QUESTION : How topical is this film?
Walter Salles : « When we started the project in 2016, we thought it was an opportunity to look back to the past to understand where we came from. But given the rise of the far right in Brazil, starting in 2017, we realized that this film would also be used to understand the present. Today, there is a political project based on the erasure of memory (of the dictatorship). Faced with this, forms of artistic expression have all the more importance ».
Fernanda Torres : « It’s a film about the present. We had a president (Jair Bolsonaro, 2019-2022) who believes the military saved Brazil from communism. This film calls for important reflection, it touches the hearts of people from all sides, everyone who watches this film says to themselves : “This is not right, this family should not be persecuted.”
How is the film received by non-Brazilian audiences?
Walter Salles : « At international festivals, we have seen similar reactions, because we are not the only country where we perceive the fragility of democracy, or which has experienced the trauma of the far right. Sean Penn saw the film on the day of Donald Trump’s election, and while showing it in Los Angeles, he cited Eunice’s smile as an example of resistance for what is to come in the United States ».
Fernanda Torres : « We live in an unstable world, where new technologies have changed social relations. In times like these, we see the desires of an authoritarian state resurface to restore order. Through this family’s perspective, this film shows what it means to live in a country with a violent government that suspends civil rights ».
The film tells a sad story, but there are also moments that make you smile…
Fernanda Torres : « It is a film that brings hope (…), through the resilience and joy of living of this family. It tells a tragedy, but after seeing it, you don’t leave the cinema without hope. On the contrary, we say to ourselves: these people resisted, they survived, they exist ».
The beginning of the film is a careful reconstruction of the life of the Paiva family, in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s. What does this mean to you?
Walter Salles : « These are teenage memories. My girlfriend at the time was friends with one of the girls in the Paiva family, and I spent a lot of time with them. In this house, it’s as if we were in another country, where we could talk freely about politics, where we talked about censored books or records. But I also discovered a violence there that I did not suspect. The day Rubens died was a turning point for all of us, there was a before and an after. If we had any innocence left, we lost it that day ».
How are you coping with the expectations regarding a possible nomination for the Oscar for best foreign film on January 17?
Walter Salles : « The prizes are used to bring more people to see the films, so I would like it in that sense. If that happens, great, if not, life goes on. I always assume that an optimistic person is a misinformed person. ».
