Rotterdam 2025 Review: I'M STILL HERE Will Not Fade From Your Memory

In 1970, Brazil was suffering under a military dictatorship. Political opponents and critics were arrested, tortured and murdered. As much as 20,000 people were "disappeared" under the regime. One of them was Rubens Pavia, an architect who had been a left-wing member of congress. Years later, Pavia's son became a famous writer who wrote a book about his father's disappearance and his mother's struggle to make the authorities confess the truth. Director Walter Salles has made a movie adaptation of the book's central story and it is very, very good.

In I'm Still Here we follow the daily goings-on in the Pavia household. The family is large and well-to-do, live in Rio de Janeiro, and while everyone is busy there is always time for a swim in the ocean. Life is bliss.

Politically, things are less rosy though. The military grows more and more bold and aggressive, and friends of the Pavia's even feel the need to flee the country, warning Rubens to do the same. Then, one day, Rubens is taken away for questioning, and while the family is told that it is a formality and he'll be back in a few hours, he doesn't come home. Days turn to weeks, more family members are brought in for questioning and are released later. Rubens' wife Eunice starts a battle to find out if her husband is still alive, but that is hard when the authorities even deny having arrested him in the first place. When weeks turn to months, Eunice needs to take increasingly drastic decisions to keep her remaining family afloat...

What Salles' film shows, in detail, is just how cowardly an act of psychological torture these "disappearances" were. All of the loved ones live in a constant state of hope and fear, and there are practical issues too: because the missing person is not officially dead, it's impossible to get money from their bank accounts, often leading whole families into ruin. For more than 45 minutes, the film just shows the chaotic but happy life of the Pavia's, meaning Rubens, Eunice, and their five children, warts and all. Because of this, when Rubens gets taken you see and understand the toll on every single person in the family. First and foremost of these is Eunice, fantastically played by Fernanda Torres who, despite strong acting by the entire rest of the cast, carries the film.

Director Walter Salles chooses to focus totally on the family, making Rubens disappear from us, the audience, as well. No torture scenes are shown, we are as much in the dark as his family is. And because he is very much present in the first part of the film, he is very much missed in the remainder of it. It is a non-sensational approach which, in contradiction, works sensationally well. For two hours, you live with these people, and their struggles are yours.

I'm Still Here is also not just a voyage into despair. You see the family suffer, but you also share in their resilience and stubbornness. Eunice Pavia became a world famous fighter for human rights, defending the Amazon rainforest and the tribes living in them, and remained a thorn in the side of right-wing political parties for her entire life. Stick around for the end credits too, as the film is full of photographs, family snapshots, several of which are important to the story. When the end titles run, you get to see how carefully these were all reproduced, as you are shown the originals with the real Rubens, the real Eunice, and their real children.

One of the most powerful films I have seen on the subject, treating it with respect and intimacy, I'm Still Here is a punch to the gut, but a good one. Viewers at the International Film Festival Rotterdam loved it and awarded the film the Audience Prize, with a whopping high rating of 4.8 out of 5.