I’m Still Here (2025) - film review

I went to the Odeon cinema in Wimbledon to see “I’m Still Here”.

I loved it.

The film is set in 1970s Brazil during the military dictatorship.

The larger-than-life family-man and affable ex-congressman Rubens Paiva simply “vanishes”. Against the subplot of communist-terrorism against the military-rule, Rubens Paiva is implicated. 

His wife Eunice is played by the spellbinding Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres. She is incredible. I think it’s hard for any actor to capture vulnerability, helplessness and terror. If you have tears, be prepared to shed a few.  Her life is torn-apart. She is devastated and terrified; but, at the same time, she has to be strong for her 5 children.

And, so, how do you raise a family (with some semblance of normality) against the terror of faceless evil-doers in uniform.

The movie is filled with an ominous heavy absence. It also exhibits the psychological toll of not knowing what happened to the “disappeared”.

I can’t recommend it enough.

★★★★★ 5/5

The Nazi-like barbarism of Hamas’s martyrdom ideology

The bodies of an Israeli baby Kfir Bibas (nine months old when kidnapped), his brother Ariel (4 years old when abducted), mother and elderly gentleman (Odad Lifshitz) were paraded in a ghoulish publicity stunt. Black caskets in front of baying crowds beneath an antisemitic poster of Netanyahu as a vampire.

Palestinian children were cheering and dancing in this depraved ceremony.

These images remind me of the Nazis.

The Palestinians are being conditioned never to view Jews as human beings. All Jews & Israelis - whether soldiers or civilians, little babies, ALL - deserve death.

How is any civilised nation supposed to be deal with this kind of savagery? 

What fascinates me is that pro-Israelis (like myself) can admit to the faults on “our side”. Israel and the IDF can say, very loudly, that they don’t want innocent civilians to die. Human life is worth protecting. The pro-Israelis in this conflict feel unease and, even misgivings sometimes, about the toll of devastation inflicted on Gaza.

We condemn prison guards torturing Palestinian prisoners. The IDF has v. recently indicted (and soon to be tried) 5 Israeli soldiers for a horrific beating of a Hamas police officer. He “suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and a tear to his rectum and subsequently required intestinal surgery.” This makes me proud of Israel. I have misgivings about Bibi and I also don't like the settlements of WB.

But the pro-pallys can never do the same.

They don’t actually ever want peace.

My heart goes out to Israel.