Connect with us

World

Movie Review: A family is torn apart under Brazil’s dictatorship in ‘I’m Still Here’

Published

on

Movie Review: A family is torn apart under Brazil’s dictatorship in ‘I’m Still Here’

It’s easy to fall in love with the Paiva family. Filmmaker Walter Salles makes sure of that in “I’m Still Here.”

He drops the audience into the warm everyday of the beautiful home of Eunice (Fernanda Torres) and Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), in 1970s Rio de Janeiro, where their five kids run freely between the beach and their living room. Life is calmly chaotic, full of affection, gentle familial teasing and various life stages (one is about to lose a tooth, another about to go to university). Someone always seems to have wet hair, be covered in sand, or bringing in a mangy stray, as their youngest, Marcelo, does in the film’s lovely opening. Even if their life is technically worlds away from any one person in the audience, it feels familiar and close.

Anyone coming to “I’m Still Here” will surely know that this domestic tranquility does not and cannot hold. It was about seven years into Brazil’s military dictatorship, which would last until 1985. And while the film suggests that there was a semblance of normalcy in their day to day, there are also ominous signs of change and oppression — reports of ambassadors being kidnapped on the news, and tense “random” traffic stops that their eldest daughter endures one night. Some left-leaning citizens are making plans to leave, but the Paiva family is not in a terrible rush. They’re even making plans to build a new home.

So when three men in civilian clothes enter their home one afternoon and tell Rubens, a former left-leaning congressman, that he needs to come in for questioning, it happens with little incident. Everyone is on guard — they’re not naive — but you sense that Eunice believes he will come back that night. Maybe even the next day. Rubens is calm changing into a collared shirt and tie and lying to his daughter that he is going into the office, even though it’s a holiday. But he also savors this moment with her, perhaps because he knows he’s likely to not return.

Advertisement
Image

The film is based on a memoir written by Paiva’s son, Marcelo, but you don’t need to know that to know that it is first and foremost a memory piece. It is deeply personal and imbued with the kind of tenderness that is extremely difficult to see or appreciate in the moment. And although it’s certainly idealized and wistful, we accept any assumed white lies because we all wish that for ourselves: to truly recognize what we have before it’s gone.

This story is not about the abduction, however, or what may have happened to Rubens after that day. It’s about how Eunice continues on, through uncertainty, absence and, ultimately, the loss of hope. Salles chooses to tell this story in a rather straightforward manner, which works well, allowing the compelling narrative and the talented actors to carry the audience through.

At the heart of it is Torres, who has already won a Golden Globe for her performance and whose portrayal of Eunice is a true marvel. Mothers and wives often get the short shrift in movies like this, about Big Important Topics decided on by men, but Torres instills Eunice with a deep emotional and practical intelligence that’s beautifully feminine, whether she’s dealing with a misogynist banker, a dead dog in the street or the thugs surveilling her home. She’s fascinating and resilient in a way that so many women are in times of historical strife but rarely celebrated for.

In one particularly poignant scene, she and the kids are being photographed by a journalist hoping to tell their story. They smile together, as they did earlier in the film when Rubens was there. Now he’s not, and the reporters are confused. They ask Eunice to try a more serious expression. She laughs, “They want us to look sad,” and instructs her kids to keep smiling. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the complex spirit of the movie. Political disappearances don’t begin and end with the victim, or the toppling of a regime — they are generational traumas that live on in the survivors and alter everything in their wake.

Advertisement

“I’m Still Here,” a Sony Pictures Classics release in limited release Friday (expanding on Jan. 24), is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “smoking, drug use, brief nudity, some strong language, thematic content.” Running time: 135 minutes. Three stars out of four.

World

Video: Humpback Whale Stranded Off German Coast Is Freed by Rescuers

Published

on

Video: Humpback Whale Stranded Off German Coast Is Freed by Rescuers

new video loaded: Humpback Whale Stranded Off German Coast Is Freed by Rescuers

In a last-ditch effort, rescuers were at last able to free a 40-foot humpback whale that had been stuck in shallow waters near the coast of Germany for four days.

By Axel Boada

March 27, 2026

Continue Reading

World

Russian man who assaulted woman during Barron Trump FaceTime call sentenced to 4 years

Published

on

Russian man who assaulted woman during Barron Trump FaceTime call sentenced to 4 years

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A Russian man convicted of assaulting a woman in London in an attack witnessed by Barron Trump, President Donald Trump’s youngest son, on a video call was sentenced to four years in prison by a London court on Friday. 

Matvei Rumiantsev, 23, an MMA fighter, was convicted by a jury on Jan. 28 of assault with bodily harm but was acquitted of rape and choking charges. He was also convicted of perverting the course of justice stemming from a letter he sent the woman from jail asking her to retract her allegations.

After the assault, Rumiantsev admitted he was jealous of his girlfriend’s friendship with the 19-year-old son of President Donald Trump.

BARRON TRUMP REPORTEDLY SAVED WOMAN’S LIFE AFTER WITNESSING VIOLENT ASSAULT ON FACETIME CALL

Advertisement

Barron Trump attends inauguration ceremonies in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool/Getty Images)

“Your lack of insight and empathy was apparent at trial,” Justice Joel Bennathan said. “You continue to try to blame the complainant for everything that has happened.”

Trump told investigators he had placed a late-night FaceTime call to the woman, whom he had met on social media, and had been startled when the call had been briefly answered by a shirtless man on Jan. 18, 2025.

“That view lasted maybe one second and I was racing with adrenaline,” Barron Trump said. “The camera was then flipped to the victim getting hit while crying, stating something in Russian.”

BARRON TRUMP SPOTTED ON NYU CAMPUS FOR FIRST TIME SINCE INAUGURATION

Advertisement

Barron Trump looks on ahead of the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20, 2025. (KEVIN LAMARQUE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Barron Trump called the police in London.

“It’s really an emergency … I’m calling from the U.S., uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up,” he told an operator. 

Police responded to the address and arrested Rumiantsev, a London-based receptionist.

At his trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Rumiantsev was acquitted of rape and choking related to the attack, as well as a separate rape and assault allegation from November 2024.

Advertisement

His attorney, Sasha Wass, said that Trump wasn’t aware the woman had a boyfriend and questioned how much he could have seen in just a few seconds of video. 

Barron Trump watches as his father, President Donald Trump attends an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event at Capital One Arena, in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Trump never testified in the case. However, the judge praised him for his quick-thinking actions. 

“Mr, Trump properly and responsibly, despite being in the United States, made sure the emergency services here were called, and he told them what he had seen,” he said.

Advertisement

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Continue Reading

World

EU Parliament unblocks key political hurdle in digital euro talks

Published

on

EU Parliament unblocks key political hurdle in digital euro talks

Published on

EU lawmakers have overcome a key political hurdle in the negotiations of digital euro, making the project closer to approval, according to a draft text seen by Euronews.

ADVERTISEMENT


ADVERTISEMENT

The Parliamentary rapporteurs involved in the legislation have found an agreement on the design of the digital euro, which will be able to function both online and offline.

Advertisement

The digital euro would be an electronic form of cash issued by the European Central Bank, designed to sit alongside banknotes and the payments services offered by commercial banks.

It has taken on new political weight as economic tensions between the EU and the US sharpen the debate over Europe’s reliance on American payment giants, such as Visa and Mastercard.

Under the European Commission’s proposal, digital euro users would have a wallet for both online and offline payments, with transactions designed so they are not trackable.

The situation in Parliament changed on Wednesday evening, when the centre-right politician Fernando Navarrete, who is the leading rapporteur on the file, announced the withdrawal of his position to reduce the scope of the digital euro to offline use only.

His position blocked the advancement of negotiations for months, jeopardising the whole legislative process, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations.

Advertisement

The political deadlock has pushed EU leaders to accelerate progress on the digital euro. At the European Council meeting on 19 March, they set a goal to have the digital euro legislation approved by the end of 2026.

With the Council, representing EU countries, having already adopted its position, the European Parliament is now the only institution left to advance the law.

“Thanks to our amendments and firm stance, we have finally broken the political deadlock on the digital euro. The distinction between online and offline has been removed, and it is now established as a single payment system,” Pasquale Tridico, the rapporteur for The Left, told Euronews.

However, lawmakers still need to agree on two key aspects: the “hold limits” and the “compensation.”

The hold limits determine the maximum amount a user can store in a digital euro wallet, while compensation sets out a model for reimbursing commercial banks that provide digital euro services.

Advertisement

Although negotiations are not yet complete, the text is expected to be voted on in the Parliament’s economy committee before the summer, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Continue Reading

Trending