24/42
My husband is in danger!
Scenario
A mother is forced to reinvent herself when her family’s life is shattered by an act of arbitrary violence during the tightening grip of the military dictatorship in Brazil, 1971. The Brazilian Film Academy selected it to compete for Best International Feature Film at the 2025 Academy Awards. Eunice Paiva: Martha, you have to help me. Martha: Everyone is in danger, Eunice.. Featured on Mais Você: Episode dated December 3, 2024 (2024).
A Festa do Santo Reis Written by Léo Maia (as Marcio Leonardo) Performed by Tim Maia
The greatest strength of Ainde Estou Aqui lies in its use of memory not as a passive recollection of the past, but as an act of resistance to preserve the dignity and identity of those brutally silenced. Walter Salles, by revealing the faces, names and humanity of those whose lives were cut short by the dictatorship, transforms memory into a manifesto for justice. From the very beginning, we see Selton Mello in a sensitive and powerful performance, almost like a breath of tenderness before the storm. He brings to life a loving father, a man who soon becomes the epicenter of the pain that permeates every corner of the house. What was once a bright home, filled with laughter and ordinary days, is now shrouded in drawn curtains, with the constant presence of strangers and the watchful eyes of military officers.
Fernanda portrays her as a woman who, in her silent struggle, refuses to let horror overcome memory, to let emptiness conquer love
Walter Salles transforms the absence of Rubens Paiva into an invisible figure, as the family begins to live a routine suffocated by external fear. And it is Fernanda Torres who gives soul and body to this story; she embodies a living resistance, something that the dictatorship could never take away: a woman’s fierce urge to rebuild what has been destroyed, to keep alive the flame of the story that belongs to her. Eunice Paiva, faced with the loss of her husband, the invisible violence of silence, the systematic erasure of life, finds strength in the ruins. Eunice Paiva is a character who, at once, moves and disturbs, because as viewers, we stay awake, expecting the dramatic outbursts, the unbridled crying, the magnificent gestures that melodrama has accustomed us to seeing – but Eunice’s pain does not manifest itself as such. It is there, buried deep, etched into her soul, maintained by a quiet strength that will not allow it to overflow, for the love of her children.
What Montenegro conveys in that moment, without words, is masterful
It is a pain that exists without fanfare, that gnaws without screaming, and that restraint makes it all the more devastating. The scene in which Fernanda eats ice cream with her daughters, trying to project the happiness that is no longer there, is magnificent. At the end of the film, when I was already devastated, the epilogue brings in Fernanda Montenegro. Just the first movement of her eyes and I was undone. She brings to the screen the strength of a woman who refuses to let the past disappear, who keeps photographs, clips, dates and notes not just for herself, but to ensure that memory survives any attempt at erasure – even the erosion of her own Alzheimer’s disease.
Nothing in Aindi Estou Aqui is accidental or superfluous
The 35mm cinematography is delicately "Walterian" poetic yet raw, managing to be aesthetic without stealing the scene. The absence of a dramatic score is a bold and effective choice, trusting the already present drama that pulsates in pauses, glances and breaths. The sound design is punctuated by airplanes, gunfire and the distant rumble of military vehicles, hinting at the constant terror and invisible control imposed by the dictatorship. The editing is precise, respecting the rhythm of grief without rushing, and the script – sensitive and powerful – allows the actors to shine, letting the pain and love resonate through dialogues of precise intensity.