14/11/25 – 19:15 The Venue (please note the earlier start time)
Brazil 2024
Dir: Walter Salles
Cert 15
138 mins
Starring: Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro
Best International Feature Film. Oscars ’25.
Rio de Janeiro 1970. On the beach people are happily playing, relaxing and swimming in the sun-dappled sea, among them the Paiva family. A stone’s throw away on the boulevard military units are on patrol and helicopters hover overhead. Rubens, the family’s patriarch, formerly a left-wing congressman, but forced out of parliament at the beginning of the military coup in 1964, has returned to his career as a civil engineer. The family life of the Paivas, mother, father and five children, is evoked in loving detail, and the fear and despair are palpable when Reubens is arrested and subsequently “disappears”. His wife Eunice makes it her life’s work to hold the government to account, becoming, on the reestablishment of democracy, a tenacious spokesperson for the many victims of the military junta. Based on a true story, “I’m still here” is a remarkable cinematic experience, with an electrifying performance by Fernanda Torres as Eunice.
Trailer: