I’m Still Here is the touching story about a family after the father was taken away by the military regime and killed during the 1970s right wing dictatorship in Brazil.

I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) jumps through three time periods in the life of the Paiva family. The majority of the story takes place in 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, when politician Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) was taken away by the police and never heard from again.

Paiva’s wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) was left with five children and no answers. She used every means she could to find out what had happened to her husband, but the police weren’t talking. Eunice herself and one of her daughters were jailed and interrogated about Rubens’ associates but they knew nothing. Watching the trauma the family suffered after the father was disappeared was heart wrenching. When we see stories about people getting snatched up and taken away without explanation, we talk about the injustice for the person taken. This story is from the perspective of the people left behind.

Under Brazil’s authoritarian rule at that time, people disappeared regularly. There were rumors of murders and mass graves, but it was hard to get reliable information. Someone who had inside information finally told Eunice that Rubens was dead. She moved her family to São Paulo where they had more relatives after that.

Fernanda Torres performance as the terrorized wife during these tense and terrifying times was moving and outstanding. The awards folks agreed. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for this performance, the first Brazilian actress to win a Golden Globe in an acting category. The nuance in her performance as she tried to keep things sane and safe for her children was impressive. I’m Still Here won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, the first-ever Brazilian produced film to win an Academy Award.

The story jumps to 1996. We see what has become of the family after right wing authoritarianism had been defeated in Brazil. Eunice graduated from law school at age 48. She became an expert on indigenous rights in Brazil. She never gave up the search for solid information on what had happened to her husband. She was a public figure in 1996. When Rubens’ death certificate was finally sent to her it made the news. The death certificate confirmed he had been killed in a police station. She commented that it was strange to celebrate a death certificate, but at least she finally knew what had happened.

Eunice’s youngest child, Marcelo, who was confined to a wheelchair as an adult, wrote a book about his family and their struggles. His work was also well known.

The story jumps to 2014 for the final scenes. Fernanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres’ mother, played the elderly Eunice. Eunice suffered with dementia at the end but it showed her responding with clarity to a TV news report about her husband’s long ago disappearance. The scenes at the end weren’t long, but it was good to see how the family had survived and thrived after enduring the terrors of a right wing government. There were cards detailing information about the family and photos of the real people.

I’m Still Here came out in 2024. It’s amazing how a story from 50+ years ago in Brazil would be so relevant to Americans in 2025. The film is touching and beautifully told – and scary. You can see it on Netflix.