Ainda Estou Aqui (2024)

	Directed by: Walter Salles	INTERNATIONAL TITLE I'm Still Here COUNTRY Brazil/France GENRE Biographical drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Fremdeles her RUNNING TIME 138 minutes
	Produced by: Maria Carlota Bruno Rodrigo Teixeira Martine de Clemont-Tonnerre
	Written by (based on the book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva): Murilo Hauser Heitor Lorega

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Eunice Paiva	Fernanda Torres	½
Rubens Paiva	Selton Mello
Marcelo Rubens Paiva	Guilherme Silveira	-
Vera Paiva	Valentina Herszage	-
Eliana Paiva	Luiza Kosovski	-
Nalu Paiva	Barbara Luz	-
Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva	Cora Mora	-
Félix	Humberto Carrão	-
Dalva Gasparian	Maeve Jinkings	-
Ricardo Gomes Pimpão	Caio Horowicz	-
Dalal Achar	Camila Márdila	-

Review

This Brazilian generational tale directed by Walter Salles opens like a whirlwind of happy, middle-class, analogue-era family life, before slowly clenching you with the military dictatorship’s grip of suspicion, arbitrariness, unknowing – and extreme torture. It's the factual version of the 1970s paranoia thrillers, if you like. Salles shoots his characters with an immediacy that transports you to a time and place that arguably deserves the worldwide attention it now gets, and he trusts you to tag along without being force-fed, which is a relief. Along with the film's narrative shift after roughly the first third comes a necessary austerity, and Salles uses this mood almost like a character or a device in itself, to impose on you what was imposed on these people back in the day. It’s quite effective, even if Salles’ tight grip never feels truly oppressive. His optimism constantly seeps through his aesthetically solid vision. Ainda Estou Aqui is carried by a very commanding performance by Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva.