The Latin American military dictatorships of the 20th century certainly did not lack open brutality and cruelty. But it was particularly perfidious to allow opponents of the regime to disappear without a trace, which deprived the families of the victims, as well as their loved ones, of the chance of closure. This is how the architect and former MP Rubens Paiva disappeared at the beginning of 1971. The fact that his fate is widely known in his Brazilian homeland is primarily due to the achievements of his wife Eunice, who is now the focus of Walter Salles' stirring, touching film “Here forever” stands. In a performance that won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar, Fernanda Torres plays a woman who has long been in the background but is forced to develop strength that is hard to believe in the face of a criminal dictatorship. To protect herself and her children, but also to preserve the memory of her missing husband.
Brazil, Christmas 1970: The sun is burning on Copacabana, the famous beach in Rio de Janeiro. Within sight, the Paiva family lives in a sprawling house, enjoys life, celebrates with friends and tries to ignore the signs of the increasingly brutal military dictatorship. Only when the eldest daughter Vero (Valentina Herszage) comes into a police stop does Rubens (Selton Mello), a successful architect, give in to the wishes of his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) to send Vero into exile in London. With the four other children – daughters Eliana, Nalu, Maria and son Marcelo – the parents stay in Rio despite the warnings of their friends until one day the military police arrest Rubens and the family's life changes forever…
Simply magnificent: No wonder that Fernanda Torres is showered with awards for “Here Forever” not only in her homeland but also in the rest of the world.
Even when the family's children initially play carefree on the beach and are happy about the little dog that has run away, a feeling of threat hovers over the images from the first moment. As Eunice floats in the water and looks skyward, she sees a helicopter. Certainly not a cause for concern under normal circumstances, but these are not normal circumstances; instead, we are in the sixth year of a military dictatorship that took power in a coup in 1964 and would not come to an end until 1985. And especially in Latin American military dictatorships, helicopters were also used to fly dissidents or other undesirable people out to sea and throw them out of the aircraft to certain death. As a viewer, you sense from the very first moment that the family's beautiful life will soon become darker; you perceive the signs more clearly than the family itself seems to. When the father gets mysterious calls and passes on unmarked envelopes, his wife Eunice sees it but doesn't take it seriously and probably just doesn't want to take it seriously.
Only when she and her daughter Eliana are taken away by the military police and interrogated for days can Eunice no longer ignore the fact that everything has changed. Walter Salles consistently tells the story from the perspective of his protagonist, who from then on tries to maintain a semblance of normality. The housewife, who always stayed in the background and put herself entirely at the service of her family, inevitably becomes the new head of the family. She negotiates with Ruben's colleagues in the office or the employees in the bank, where she is met with sympathy everywhere, but no one can really help her. Out of fear of the military dictatorship, but also because no one really knows what happened. Rubens was not officially arrested, so even with the help of lawyers, Eunice cannot find out where Rubens is imprisoned and whether he is even still alive.
If the father is kidnapped by the state but everyone acts as if nothing had happened, it is often even harder for the family to bear than if he had simply been murdered.
This could be the material for a classic melodrama, for dramatic moments full of anger and sadness. But the “Central Station” director chooses the completely opposite path: in an almost documentary way, he shows Eunice's attempt to keep her family together and to confront the military dictatorship with dignity and unwavering consistency. In Fernanda Torres he has found the ideal actress who turns her character into a symbol of resilience. It's a quiet performance at first, but then an all-important performance. So it's only a little surprising why a Brazilian, who is still little known in Hollywood, snatched the Golden Globe for Best Actress from other nominated superstars like Angelina Jolie (“Maria”) and Nicole Kidman (“Baby Girl”).
Only many years later, in the mid-1990s, will Eunice be able to celebrate a moral success and finally gain certainty about her husband's fate. She has now studied law and is committed to supporting oppressed minorities, her son Marcelo has been paralyzed since an accident and has become a writer: his book “Ainda Estou Aqui” (= “I am still here”), published in 2015, served as a template for this Film that became the most popular title in its home country since the corona pandemic. This success is certainly a sign of his great quality, but also of the desire to come to terms with a two-decade-long military dictatorship, which has left deep marks on the psyche of an entire country, especially through the cruel method of enforced disappearances.
Conclusion: In his touching drama “Here Forever” Walter Salles describes the consequences of the Brazilian military dictatorship on the relatives of the victims. Starring the outstanding Fernanda Torres, it describes how a woman and her family face the dictatorship with dignity and resilience.