The Brazilian director Walter Salleswhose film I’m still here (I’m still here) will represent his country in the Oscars 2025stated in Marrakech that “for four years, Brazilian cinema has been subjected to silence” due to the “double pandemic” of covid and the demobilization of the country’s cultural sector. “It is very easy to destroy things, it is much more difficult to build. So for four years Brazilian cinema has been constrained to silence,” he explained during a conversation held within the framework of the International Film Festival in the Moroccan city.
I’m still here‘ tells the vicissitudes of a family with five children during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985) and is based on the biographical book by Marcelo Rubens Paivawriter and son of politician Rubens Paivadisappeared in 1971. In this regard, Salles indicated that “he mixes the history of Brazil of the last 30 years” through that family, which he knew personally as a child before the disappearance of his father, murdered by the military dictatorship. “I know this family, I was in that house in the film. In those moments we had the idea that another country was possible,” he said, adding that his story has as its center the “broken dream” of that family that overcomes the pain.
The film has just been released in Brazilwhere its projections, Salles explained, are achieving a return to the collective experience in the rooms. “Different generations go to see the movie at the cinema together and usually stay until the end of the credits talking about it,” he explained. For the director born in Rio de Janeiro, this is “a gift” because going to the cinema means “being part of a collective experience that could not be reproduced anywhere else.”
“In these experiences,” said Salles, “you understand how literature or cinema can be incredible instruments against oblivion, they can raise questions.” And that, raising questions, is what Salles seeks with his films. “That cinema can be an engine of questionsthat touches something unknown that can generate a debate or a feeling that you have never felt before.”
Walter Salles He remembers that, in January 1971 (when the action of his film takes place), the Paiva house stood out for always keeping its doors open, becoming a refuge for discussions about politics, music and the destiny of Brazil. Salles describes the environment as surprising, a space where people of different ages lived together, sharing a common desire for freedom in a context of state repression.
The experience of this environment, which radically contrasted with the family affections and dynamics that he knew, had a profound impact on the filmmaker, who was 14 years old at the time. “That contrast was shocking,” says Salles. However, on January 20, 1971, a national holiday, he and his group of friends found the house closed. This apparently simple fact became a symbol of the abrupt change that the escalation of violence of the dictatorship in Brazil would bring.
Over time, he understood that the story of the Paiva family, owners of that house, represented much more than a personal story: it was a reflection of a country project truncated by the military coup of 1964 and its brutal consequences. In that home, led by Rubens and Eunice Paiva, the aspiration to build a different Brazil lay, a dream that was annihilated along with the life of Rubens, kidnapped and murdered by the regime.
Regarding the book on which the film was based, Salles says that the publication of I’m still herewritten by Marcelo Rubens Paivahad a profound impact on him. The book, published in 2015, addresses the life of the author’s parents and the reconstruction of family memory, a process that Salles describes as “a maturity recordof deep and heartbreaking beauty.” Especially significant for the filmmaker was Marcelo’s recognition of his mother, Eunice, whom he portrays as the family’s silent heroine.
Despite the poignancy of the text, Salles did not immediately feel certain that he should turn it into a film. It took him years to reflect on how to approach a story so rich in nuances and fragmented memories. Influenced by his admiration for films such as Rashomon of Akira Kurosawafinally decided to undertake this project, driven by his closeness to the Paiva family and the perception that reconstructing the past required articulating the unique memory fragments of each member.
Salles also highlights that the collaboration with Marcelo Rubens Paiva was decisive in the development of the script, written by Murilo Hauser y Heitor Lorega (N. de la R: awarded at the Venice Film Festival). This process occurred in a respectful and close manner, which generated mutual trust between them. “It was Marcelo who helped me reopen that house, to remember so many things that had remained dark for me,” confesses Salles, recognizing that the book not only narrates a family memory, but also resonates in the collective memory of Brazil.
The film is not limited to adapting the book; It is a dialogue between Salles’ personal memories, his memories of the house in Leblon and the various layers of memory contributed by Marcelo and his sisters. Especially in the first 30 minutes of the film, this combination of perspectives results in an intimate and organic representation of family life, accentuated by Super 8 images that capture the essence of those years. For Salles, this approach allowed us to reflect “the being in the world” of that family, which represents both a personal past and a mirror of a Brazil that no longer exists.
Source: EFE
(Photos: EFE / Sony Pictures press)
