I’M STILL HERE / AINDA ESTOU AQUI (2024)
Director: Walter Salles
Country: Brazil / France
Release Year: 2024
Genre: Drama
Language: Portuguese
Runtime: 136 min
Synopsis: One afternoon in 1971, Rubens Paiva, a former congressman and outspoken critic of Brazil’s newly instituted military dictatorship, was taken from his home in Rio de Janeiro by government officials, told nothing more than that he must give a “deposition” to authorities, and disappeared. Adapted from his son Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir, this overwhelming, richly realized political drama from Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) stays tightly wedded to the perspective of Rubens’s wife, Eunice (a shattering Fernanda Torres), whose indefatigable search for the truth about her husband would stretch out for decades. A devastating true story, I’m Still Here is exhilarating in its portrayal of human tenacity in the face of injustice. Featuring a deeply affecting appearance from Fernanda Montenegro, Oscar nominee for Salles’s Central Station. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Awards:
Best International Feature – Academy Award 2025
Co-sponsored by the Department of Film and Media Studies, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. This year’s festival includes screened materials selected and provided in collaboration with the undergraduate courses Spanish 186: Juan Rulfo and Spanish 160: Luso-Hispanic Film.
We gratefully acknowledge the UCI Humanities Center for making this event possible through the Building Intellectual Community grant.
This event is FREE and Open to the Public.