Brazil's great hope for the 2025 Oscars “I'm still here.” It has moved audiences around the world and promises to do the same with Brazilian audiences. The film will be screened, starting this Friday (18th), at the 48th Sao Paulo International Film Festival, directed by Walter Saul No tears, not even from the actors.
Set in the years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, the film tells the story of the Paiva family after the disappearance of the patriarch, civil engineer and former deputy Rubens Paiva, taken by military agents from his home in the Leblon neighborhood, in Rio. De Janeiro, January 20, 1971. With no answers about her husband and five children to care for, Eunice desperately changes her life to keep the family afloat and pressure the government for answers. Where is Rubens? The work describes this path in the face of this pain that does not have time to live.
Speaking to reporters at the press conference for the film's premiere, he said: Seldon Mellow He did not suppress his emotions. The actor cried when talking about the feeling of finally premiering the work on Brazilian soil and remembered his own mother.
Like Eunice Baiwa, Aretuza Figueiredo Selva Melosa, Mother of Selden and Tanton MelloHe died from Alzheimer's disease last July at the age of 83.
“We are very happy to be here, this is the beginning of our history, of our meeting with Brazilians, our public and our language. That's the story: we talk about our people, we touch the world. That's what happens. On trips and festivals,” Selden explained.
The actor, who gained 20 kilos to realistically portray the character of Rubens Baiva, says that the physical transformation was the least of the difficulties. “It's part of the business, part of the job. I think we are talking about beauty encounters here. For me it is a reunion with Marcelo, of whom I have been a fan and friend for years,” he said. Writer who inspired the film.
“I belong to a generation that was totally influenced by Felice ano Velho, I love and respect Marcelo and never in my life would I have imagined that one day I would play Marcelo's father. It was so emotional that I wouldn't go. I don't have photos of Rubens to pretend otherwise, I have seen photos, I have heard from Marcelo, his sisters and friends.
Eunice Paiva's story touched Selden Mello for his mother
During the press conference, the actor opened his heart when talking about the universality of the film. He took the opportunity to explain why he had spoken so loudly.
“My intention in this film was to make this first half speak more spiritually than technically. 'Valdinho' is the gourmet master of the business. In fact, he is a filmmaker and handles everything with the utmost precision. Very elegant, as it is in life, with Valdinho who takes a camera and films something,” he praised.
“It was so beautiful, so beautiful! That's why everything is so strong in this job. It is a film about memory. At the end of this film there is Fernanda Montenegro with Alzheimer's and I also lost my mother, no. It began a long time ago with a very personal journey, but little by little this film becomes ours too, a great inner journey for all of us.
“I'm still here.” It arrives in theaters throughout Brazil on November 7.
