A new film confronts Brazil's dark past

WHEN CELEBRATED BRAZILIAN AUTHOR MARCELO PAIVA started writing his 2015 memoir Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here), he wanted to record his family history as his mother was losing her memory.

- ALEXANDER DURIE

Eunice Paiva had been living with Alzheimer's for over a decade, losing her own past as a human-rights lawyer and activist. Her lifelong pursuit of justice was personal: her husband and Marcelo's father, Rubens Paiva, an engineer and Congressman, was arrested by military police and forcibly disappeared on Jan. 20, 1971.

It became clear decades later that he had been tortured and murdered by Brazil's military dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 to 1985. His body was never found.

As a domestic best seller, the book threw a light on Brazil's dark and largely unspoken past, and now, a decade later, I'm Still Here has gone global as a critically acclaimed film. Now playing in the U.S. after premiering to raves at the Venice International Film Festival last summer, the movie was adapted from Marcelo's book by his friend Walter Salles, one of Brazil's most accomplished filmmakers.

On Jan. 5, I'm Still Here won one of two Golden Globes for which it was nominated, Best Actress in a Drama for star Fernanda Torres-who bested Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, and Kate Winslet to become the first Brazilian to win the category. The recognition arrives 25 years after her mother Fernanda Montenegro, who plays an older version of Eunice in I'm Still Here, was nominated for another Salles film, Central Station. On Jan. 23, the film earned Oscar nods for Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Torres.

The film portrays the Paivas' idyllic life by Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro in the early '70s as military police crack down on leftist guerrilla groups resisting the dictatorship.

The family's joy is brutally interrupted by Rubens' home arrest over his suspected links with the groups. Eunice and one of her four daughters are arrested and interrogated in prison.