---
title: "I'm Still Here"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/im-still-here"
fi1m_score: 80
critics_score: 83
critics_reviews: 26
published: "2026-09-20T08:49:18.611079+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-20T08:49:19.075993+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# I'm Still Here (2024)

Directed by Walter Salles · 2h 18m · MPA PG-13 · Drama, History

**Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 83 from 26 reviews

*In a sentence:* A house in Rio with every door open, and the state walks straight in wearing short sleeves

> Walter Salles’s film about the Paiva family, whose father is taken by Brazil’s military in 1971, is calm and exact, with a lead performance from Fernanda Torres that never once asks for sympathy. It is also tidier than life can have been.

## Synopsis

Rio de Janeiro, the last weeks of 1970. Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a former congressman turned engineer, lives with his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres), their five children, a dog and the housekeeper Zezé (Pri Helena) in a house across the road from the beach in Leblon. The doors are always open. The eldest daughter, Veroca (Valentina Herszage), films the family on Super 8 before leaving for London with friends. Army checkpoints stop cars on the coast road and the radio reports the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador, but the house carries on. Then, in January 1971, men in plain clothes call at the door and ask Rubens to come with them to give a statement. He says he will be back soon. Eunice waits, with the children, and with the men who have stayed behind.

## Review

Rio de Janeiro, the end of 1970. The Paivas live in a house across the road from the beach in Leblon, and Walter Salles spends his first half hour there before anything goes wrong. Rubens (Selton Mello), a former congressman who now runs an engineering practice, comes home to a house that is never empty: five children, a dog, a housekeeper called Zezé (Pri Helena), friends who stay for dinner and dance in the sitting room. Eunice (Fernanda Torres) runs it all. The eldest, Veroca (Valentina Herszage), films everything on Super 8 before she leaves for London. Salles knew this family as a teenager, and it shows. He films the house the way you remember a house you loved, not the way you would describe it to a stranger.

Then, one afternoon in January 1971, men in plain clothes arrive and ask Rubens to come and give a statement. He goes, saying he will be back for dinner. Some of the men stay. That is the first act, and everything we will say about what happens, except that the film is taken from a memoir by the son, Marcelo, and that Eunice Paiva is a name that means something in Brazil.

The scene of his taking frightened us more than we expected, and it did so by being polite. Nobody shouts. The men sit in the sitting room as if they had been invited; Eunice is told to carry on as normal and does, laying the table, sending the children upstairs. Adrian Teijido has shot the first half hour with every door and window open, sun across the floorboards and the sea audible in every room. Now the shutters close and the same rooms are dim and full of strangers, and the film has not changed its tone of voice to tell us so.

Torres has almost no speeches. Salles and his writers, Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, have decided that Eunice will not be seen to break, and Torres plays a woman making that decision every hour in front of her children. When she is herself taken in for questioning, with her daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski), she asks after her husband over and over, and Torres does the work with her jaw and her stillness rather than her eyes. Later a magazine photographer comes to the house and asks the family to look sad for the picture. She tells the children to smile. It moved us more than we thought possible, and the reason is plain: she is not pretending to be fine, she is refusing to hand those men one more thing.

Affonso Gonçalves lets the early scenes run past their natural end, a dinner, a game on the sand, so that we live in the house rather than visit it, then tightens once the men arrive. Warren Ellis’s score is a low held tone, used sparingly; most of the music comes off the family’s record player, Brazilian pop of the period, and that is the right call, because the record player belongs to them and the score does not. Cláudia Kopke dresses Eunice in plain shift dresses and the agents in short-sleeved shirts and slacks, so they look like anyone’s uncle. Veroca’s Super 8 footage keeps coming back, grainy and sun-bleached, and by the fourth time we felt the film leaning on it.

It is a tidy film, and that is our caveat. Rubens is kind, funny and a good dancer, and has no faults the film will admit to; Eunice is right in every scene. The more sceptical reviews call it hagiography, and we half agree. We would have liked one scene where she was unfair from exhaustion, and there is not one. The last stretch jumps forward in time, twice, and the second jump, with Fernanda Montenegro (Torres’s mother, and the lead in Salles’s [*Central Station*](https://film.one/film/central-station)) taking over the role, is brief enough to feel like a footnote read aloud. We will not describe it. At 138 minutes the middle years sag a little, too.

See it anyway, and see it for Torres, who makes a case for restraint that most performances of this kind never get near. It is a 15 certificate, and hardly a blow is struck on screen. The rating is for the men in the armchairs, and we think that is fair.

*Fi1m score 80, published 20 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics receive this warmly, and nearly all of them name the same thing first: Fernanda Torres. Her performance as Eunice Paiva, the mother holding a household together after her husband is taken by Brazil’s military dictatorship, is praised across the reviews for its restraint. Walter Salles’s direction is admired for the tactile, lived-in picture of family life before the regime intrudes, and for keeping the drama intimate rather than turning it into a political thriller.

The reservations are few and mostly about tone. The New Yorker finds the film idealised and airbrushed; Slant calls it hagiographic; The Playlist thinks it lacks urgency and plays like a museum exhibit; The Skinny and Empire find the unhurried pace drains momentum. Nobody is negative, and even the mixed reviews spare Torres. The spread is narrow, from good to admiring, with a small cluster feeling the film is too gentle with its subject.

### Reviews we read (26)

- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): Walter Salles’s drama centres on a mother’s unwavering strength after her husband’s disappearance under Brazil’s dictatorship. The critic highlights Fernanda Torres’s phenomenal portrayal of motherhood as the film’s standout element. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/im-still-here-fernanda-torres-is-phenomenal-as-a-mother-on-a-mission-w9gt650j2)
- **Evening Standard**, Nick Howells (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film a triumph of humanity that delivers both emotional embrace and gut punch. Torres's performance as Eunice is singled out as astounding and perhaps the best female performance of the year. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/i-m-still-here-review-fernanda-torres-walter-salles-b1211285.html)
- **IndieWire**, Leila Latif (90/100, inferred): The critic describes a touching tribute to a family left adrift, with the film fortifying the legacy of Rubens Paiva through Walter Salles’ loving biopic. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-1235042776/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Carlos Aguilar (90/100, inferred): The critic lauds Torres’s subtle, internalized portrayal of maternal courage and resilience in the face of loss, noting how Salles contrasts the family’s initial joy with the regime’s intrusion to create a life-affirming drama. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-01-17/im-still-here-review-fernanda-torres-walter-salles-brazil)
- **The AV Club**, Manuel Betancourt (A-): The critic highlights Fernanda Torres’s revelatory restrained performance as the anchor of a humanist family drama that chronicles resilience and resistance under dictatorship without maudlin excess. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/im-still-here-review)
- **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): Walter Salles’s fact-based drama follows the Paiva family after the father’s abduction during Brazil’s military dictatorship. The critic praises Fernanda Torres’s intelligent and emotionally complex performance as the mother who maintains hope and resilience for her children. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/23/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-fernanda-torres-phenomenal-true-life-saga-family-torn-apart-brazil-military-dictatorship)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a gripping, profoundly touching film with deep pathos and one of Salles’ best, praising the intimate lens on family resistance under dictatorship and Fernanda Torres’s eloquent restraint. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-fernanda-torres-1235989211/)
- **The New York Times** (Critic’s Pick): The critic praises the film as a beautiful, gutting portrait of a Brazilian family whose domestic bliss is shattered by the military dictatorship, highlighting Fernanda Torres’s stunning performance as the resilient mother Eunice. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/movies/im-still-here-review.html)
- **Variety**, Jessica Kiang (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film deeply poignant and moving for its focus on family resilience and Eunice’s quiet courage after her husband’s disappearance, captured through tactile, memory-like filmmaking and Torres’s superb performance. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-1236121390/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Nick James (85/100, inferred): The film retells the story of activist Eunice Paiva and her family under Brazil's military dictatorship, with Salles drawing on personal memories. Fernanda Torres delivers a restrained, totally convincing portrayal of the resilient matriarch. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/im-still-here-fernanda-torres-shines-walter-salles-brazilian-family-saga)
- **The Independent** (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Fernanda Torres's masterful, controlled performance as Eunice Paiva. The film is highlighted for its intimate, child’s-eye view of family life amid dictatorship and for capturing the mother's defiant joy and resilience. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/im-still-here-review-fernanda-torres-b2700872.html)
- **Vulture** (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Fernanda Torres’s marvelously internalized and subtle performance that grounds the film in emotional reality, making the family’s story heartbreaking through restraint amid political thriller elements. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-fernanda-torres-is-a-subtle-marvel-in-im-still-here.html)
- **Financial Times** (80/100, inferred): Walter Salles’s Oscar-nominated film depicts the Paiva family’s life under military rule after the father’s abduction. The critic notes its timely portrait of authoritarianism and the family’s personal resilience amid historical darkness. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/fb162c08-fe6e-4e4c-b607-63727a9d5c03)
- **Little White Lies**, Rafa Sales Ross (5/4/5): Salles returns to narrative filmmaking with a sensitive depiction of the forced disappearance of Rubens Paiva and the devastation faced by his family. Fernanda Torres gives an arresting, potent lead performance marked by containment and unshakeable intent. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/im-still-here)
- **Screen Daily** (80/100, inferred): Salles directs a superb factually-based film that is an engrossing, affecting tribute to a formidable woman and her family under military rule. Fernanda Torres gives a standout performance as the resilient matriarch Eunice. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/im-still-here-venice-review/5196729.article)
- **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): Salles delivers a personal and poignant vision of family life under Brazilian fascism, centering on a dogged woman determined to protect her family. The film blends family drama and political thriller while evoking an authentic sense of time and place. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/im-still-here-review-2024)
- **Empire**, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (70/100, inferred): The film is described as a sensitive portrait of family life under trauma but noted for its subdued tone that may limit impact outside Brazil. Fernanda Torres's understated lead performance receives particular praise. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/im-still-here-2025/)
- **The New Yorker**, Justin Chang (70/100, inferred): The film movingly depicts a family torn apart by Brazil’s dictatorship through Eunice’s perspective and Torres’s restrained performance, but the critic finds it overly idealized and airbrushed in its humanist approach. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-current-cinema/the-political-drama-of-im-still-here-is-moving-but-airbrushed)
- **Slant Magazine** (2.5/4): The critic finds the film’s affection tender but largely hagiographic, noting it reconstructs the family’s daily life immersively yet struggles to excavate deeper humanism beyond determining how history remembers them. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/im-still-here-review-walter-salles/)
- **Collider**, Emma Kiely (9/10): The critic calls it one of the year's best films, a gut-wrenching yet celebratory account of a family's survival during Brazil's dictatorship. Fernanda Torres's lead performance is singled out as magnificent and Oscar-worthy. [Read](https://collider.com/im-still-here-2024-review/)
- **Deadline**, Stephanie Bunbury (90/100, inferred): The film is ultimately a celebration of Brazil's resilience and spirit under tyranny, with a visceral sense of shock when the family's idyll is shattered. Fernanda Torres delivers an emotionally delicate performance as Eunice that should put her in the awards race. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/09/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-love-letter-to-brazil-is-a-warning-from-history-venice-film-festival-1236075262/)
- **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (4.5/5): The critic praises the film's tactile, intimate portrayal of the Paiva family before and after the dictatorship's intrusion, highlighting Salles' attention to detail and Fernanda Torres' performance. It singles out the warm family dynamics and the seamless aging of the lead character. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/im-still-here-2024-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)
- **The Wrap** (90/100, inferred): The film is an unflinching look at injustice paired with a compassionate portrait of one woman fighting it, grounded in rich humanity and everyday details of life under repression. Fernanda Torres captures every setback, joy and loss with grace in a quietly devastating performance. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/im-still-here-review-fernanda-torres/)
- **Paste**, Jason Gorber (8.7): The review praises the film's powerful depiction of quiet resilience and one woman's fight for justice and truth under dictatorship. Torres's performance is highlighted as exceptional, though the ending is noted as slightly maudlin. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/im-still-here/im-still-here-review-fernanda-torres-oscar-nomination-chile-eunice-paiva)
- **The Playlist**, Marshall Shaffer (C+): The review criticizes the film for its lack of urgency and bland historical drama approach, noting it feels like a museum exhibit rather than capturing the anguish. It praises Fernanda Torres' performance but faults the script for prioritizing plot over character development. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/im-still-here-review-walter-salles-renders-brazilian-injustice-as-bland-historical-drama-venice-20240901/)
- **The Skinny**, Josh Slater-Williams (★★★): The critic highlights Fernanda Torres's intricate central performance as the film's strongest element. The unostentatious direction and unhurried pace benefit the acting but cause the surrounding film to lose momentum. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/im-still-here-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Walter Salles
- **Director:** Walter Salles
- **Screenplay:** Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega
- **Cinematography:** Adrian Teijido
- **Editor:** Affonso Gonçalves
- **Music:** Warren Ellis
- **Costume design:** Cláudia Kopke
- **Producer:** Rodrigo Teixeira, Walter Salles, Maria Carlota Bruno
- **Cast:** Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva; Fernanda Montenegro as Eunice Paiva (Older); Selton Mello as Rubens Paiva; Valentina Herszage as Veroca; Maria Manoella as Veroca; Bárbara Luz as Nalu; Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha as Nalu; Luiza Kosovski as Eliana
- **Runtime:** 2h 18m
- **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13
- **Release (the US):** 7 February 2025
- **Genres:** Drama, History
- **Also in:** [Best Picture winners](https://film.one/collections/oscar-best-picture.md) (Nominee, 2024)
- **Budget:** $8 million
- **Box office:** $36 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDunV808Yf4

## Where to watch in the US

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-20.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, FI, FR, GB, HU, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2025: Best Picture (nominated); Best International Feature Film (won)
- FIPRESCI Grand Prix 2025: FIPRESCI Grand Prix (won)
- Golden Globes 2025: Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama (won)
- Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture 2025: Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture (won)
- Best Screenplay Award (Venice Film Festival) 2024: Best Screenplay Award (Venice Film Festival) (won)

## If you liked this

- *The Official Story* (1985): Argentina’s disappeared seen from a comfortable Buenos Aires kitchen, by a mother who stops looking away
- *Missing* (1982), Fi1m 80: Costa-Gavras on a father hunting for his son through Chilean offices; the politeness is the horror — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/missing-1982.md)
- *Central Station* (1998), Fi1m 85: Salles’s earlier film, with Fernanda Montenegro at full strength on a long bus ride north — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/central-station.md)
- *Roma* (2018), Fi1m 86: A 1970s household in Mexico City, the housekeeper’s view, and history coming in through the windows — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/roma.md)
- *Nostalgia for the Light* (2010): A documentary about Chile’s desert, its telescopes and the women still searching the sand

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/im-still-here