Author behind Oscar-nominated film finds praise and ire for his rebuke
of Brazil's dictatorship
 [February 27, 2025]
By MAURICIO SAVARESE
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian author Marcelo Rubens Paiva happily swung his
wheelchair from side to side, dancing with thousands of Carnival
revelers there to celebrate him and his work. Seconds later, an
unidentified man showed Paiva his middle finger, then threw a beer can
and a backpack that hit him in the head.
Paiva, a popular author in Brazil for four decades, has had intense days
and exchanges since the movie based on his 2015 book “I'm Still Here”
became a box-office success. The film, a rare blockbuster in the South
American nation, garnered three Oscar nominations ahead of the awards
ceremony Sunday.
While millions of Brazilians love the story for its long-overdue
truth-telling about the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship,
others see it as left-wing propaganda. Paiva has been dismayed at the
outpouring of hatred, mostly online, directed at him.
“It is simply (our) history being told in the way we believe it must be
told, the way our family lived it, so it never happens again,” Paiva,
65, told The Associated Press in his Sao Paulo apartment. “I assure you
that some of those on the far-right or on the right have watched it and
maybe changed their opinion.”
“I’m Still Here” is up for best picture and best international feature,
while Fernanda Torres, who portrayed Paiva's mother Eunice, is competing
for best actress. The film centers on the disappearance of Rubens Paiva,
the author's father, and Eunice's decadeslong quest to force authorities
to confirm his death.
An important story to tell
Paiva, one of five siblings, has known success, but not as much
controversy. His 1982 book “Happy Old Year” narrating his life before
and after a diving accident put him in a wheelchair, sold more than 1.5
million copies. He is also an award-winning playwright, former TV talk
show host and political activist.
But he says nothing prepared him for the sudden impact “I’m Still Here”
had since it won best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. Many other
awards followed since.
“This is very different; it is more intense because of social networks,"
Paiva said. “People (around the world) react in the same way to this
movie, with the same emotion that Brazilians felt.”
After his book about his accident, he knew he still had another
important story to tell.
“I was the son of a disappeared politician; few people knew what had
happened during the dictatorship,” he said.
That was largely because Congress passed an amnesty law in 1979, as the
dictatorship neared its end, sparing perpetrators of political crimes
from prosecution.
Cracks started to emerge in 2011 after then President Dilma Rousseff — a
former guerrilla who was tortured during the dictatorship — established
a national truth commission to investigate its abuses. It was one of the
seeds for Paiva's book and, later, the film.
“People were asking for reparations for families of missing politicians,
they sued my father’s torturers,” he said. “The military showed they
were upset, because their colleagues and their fellow coup mongers were
under fire. The accusations were being published, so they started to
threaten Brazil’s democracy. And little by little it was once again in
doubt.”
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Brazilian novelist Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the author of the book that
served as the basis for the film, "I'm Still Here," speaks during an
interview at his home in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP
Photo/Andre Penner)
 Condemnation from Bolsonaro
Past ire toward the Paiva family has notably come from one man: Jair
Bolsonaro, the former army captain who rode a wave of
anti-establishment populism to his presidency (2019-2022).
In 2014, then-lawmaker Bolsonaro spat on a statue of the late Paiva
in Congress, accusing him and his family of being at the service of
communist terrorists. His claims date to the 1990s and falsely link
a farm the Paiva family owned, near where Bolsonaro grew up, to a
guerrilla group.
“Every year, he made a speech against my father, making up stories,”
Paiva said. “Once, he said my father had been killed by his comrades
who were in the armed struggle, because he had revealed things
during the torture sessions. It was the first time I heard anyone
tell such an absurd story, with no evidence, and people believed it.
It was the first time I saw the power of social media in creating a
new narrative, a lie."
Bolsonaro said in an interview Monday he hasn't seen the film, but
his allies have railed against it, saying Paiva died in a war, as
did many on both sides. Brazil’s Truth Commission found that at
least 434 people died at the hands of the military regime, including
136 who disappeared.
Paiva published “I’m Still Here” as Alzheimer’s disease washed away
his mother’s memory. Director Walter Salles bought the rights in
2017, but chose not to make the film during Bolsonaro's presidency.
Last week, Brazil's prosecutor-general indicted Bolsonaro for
allegedly staging a coup to remain in power. It included inciting a
riot in capital Brasilia by encouraging his supporters to riot
marking an echo of the Capitol insurrection in the U.S.
“People everywhere are afraid of watching their democracies become
dictatorships," Paiva said. "This movie glorifies democracy and the
understanding that human rights, empathy are in short supply.”
‘Mission accomplished’
Adding to Paiva's recent achievements since the film premiered, his
father’s death certificate, first obtained by his mother in 1996,
was updated in January to go beyond mere confirmation to include:
“violent death caused by the Brazilian State in the context of
systematic persecution to the population identified as dissidents of
the policies of the dictatorial regime installed in 1964.”
Brazil's Supreme Court said earlier this week it will rule whether
the sole survivor among Rubens Paiva’s torturers, Gen. José Antônio
Nogueira Belham, can be tried. Brazilian human rights activists have
argued that concealing bodies is a continuous crime not covered by
the country’s amnesty law.
“I see literature as a mission, and I feel mine was accomplished,"
said Paiva. “The movie’s mission is accomplished, even if it doesn’t
win any Oscars.”
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