‘I’m Still Here’ Review – Fernanda Torres’ Gripping Performance Carries Walter Salles’ Return To The Screen [NYFF 2024]

This year’s New York Film Festival included several timely, poignant films that touch on issues we experience today. Whether it be the brilliant documentary No Other Land showing us the recent destruction of the West Bank or RaMell Ross’s moving snapshot of a late Jim Crow-era juvenile school, Nickel Boys, important matters were brought to the forefront throughout the festival. This run of films includes seasoned director Walter Salles’ latest feature, I’m Still Here, which follows the true story of the Paiva family living in Brazil. Their lives are upended when the government takes the father (Selton Mello), mother (Fernanda Torres), and one of the children in for questioning as they search for links to anti-government groups.

I’m Still Here is an incredibly timely film, coming to us during an election year. Despite the setting being Brazil, the reality of what is happening to the Paivas is a legitimate concern for many Americans, given the ongoing presidential race. Based on the memoir written by Marcello, the son of the Paiva family, the story smartly hones in on the effects of fascism and a corrupt governmental regime on just this family and doesn’t morph into a sweeping epic following the corruption throughout the country. In particular, the story focuses on the mother, Eunice, in an impressive performance from Fernanda Torres. 

Torres is asked to show incredible range in this film as Eunice balances trying to continue being a good mother and fiercely pursuing justice for her husband, Rubens. While the other actors perform exceptionally, the weight of the film rests squarely on Torres’ shoulders. Her ability to express a wide array of emotions without uttering a single word is powerful, showing major restraint only to release that buildup of anger and grief at the right moments. 

Salles’ direction combined with a great script from Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega creates the best version of this story. We get nearly an hour to get to know the different family members and see how they live and interact with each other. Rubens Paiva shows off a lot of “father-of-the-year” energy during this first third of the film, and the family clearly has a special bond that many would be envious of. This time with the family makes their eventual turmoil that much more effective, and it will come as a genuine shock to those who go into the film blind to the true story. Salles and crew could have easily cut this down to get a shorter runtime, but it’s clear this kind of on-ramp was necessary to tell the whole story. 

I’m Still Here is a brilliant portrayal of what corrupt governmental structure can do to people, looking through the lens of a single family. No one would wish what happens to the Paivas on their worst enemy. Families being ripped apart, people disappearing with no knowledge of their whereabouts, and low-level thugs on a power trip feel like they can do anything they want with the governmental wind at their backs. This is what happens when power falls into the hands of the likes of the Brazilian Military Dictatorship. These stories are important and need to be told again and again as cautionary tales to those in the present so these mistakes aren’t made again. Stories like this are especially precious as they don’t always get as much media attention outside of the country they come from. We see this now with ongoing conflict in the West Bank and Eastern Europe. They simply don’t get coverage so we can go on about our days unaware of the horrors happening across the globe. 

I’m Still Here is Walter Salles’ most urgent, personal film to date. The combination of his direction, a powerful story, and a devastatingly gripping performance from Fernanda Torres make this one of the most profound films to come out of the New York Film Festival this year and is hopefully going to pop up in awards conversations leading up to the Academy Awards, particularly for the Torres performance. Seek this film out as Sony Pictures Classics distributes it wide later this year.

I’m Still Here held its U.S. Premiere as part of the Spotlight section at the 2024 New York Film Festival. The film will receive a one-week awards qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles in November courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. It will then be released in New York and Los Angeles on January 17th before expanding to theaters nationwide on February 14, 2025. 

Director: Walter Salles

Writers: Murilo Hause, Heitor Lorega

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 135m