{"id":249321,"date":"2025-03-01T04:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T04:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/how-oscar-nominated-im-still-here-may-hold-brazils-military-accountable\/"},"modified":"2025-03-01T04:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T04:39:10","slug":"how-oscar-nominated-im-still-here-may-hold-brazils-military-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/how-oscar-nominated-im-still-here-may-hold-brazils-military-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"How Oscar-Nominated \u2018I\u2019m Still Here\u2019 May Hold Brazil\u2019s Military Accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/28\/multimedia\/28brazil-dictatorship-bvfg\/28brazil-dictatorship-bvfg-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"How Oscar-Nominated \u2018I\u2019m Still Here\u2019 May Hold Brazil\u2019s Military Accountable\" title=\"How Oscar-Nominated \u2018I\u2019m Still Here\u2019 May Hold Brazil\u2019s Military Accountable\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d \u2014 the Oscar best picture nominee about the murder of a Brazilian congressman by the country\u2019s military dictatorship \u2014 concludes with a single sentence that delivers a gut punch of historical reality: The five soldiers charged in the killing were never punished because of laws granting them amnesty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now the film could help change that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This month, Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court unanimously decided to review whether it should revoke the amnesty of the army officers accused of killing the congressman, Rubens Paiva, and two others. That followed a December decision by one justice to recommend the removal of amnesty protections in a separate dictatorship-era case. In his ruling, the justice explicitly cited \u201cI\u2019m Still Here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The sudden and extraordinary judicial reckoning the film has provoked could have sweeping legal implications: Will Brazil\u2019s amnesty law, as it has for nearly a half-century, continue to shield those who committed atrocities during the dictatorship?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The fact that question is being raised now shows how \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d \u2014 in addition to its <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/14\/world\/americas\/a-surprise-blockbuster-in-brazil-stokes-oscar-hopes-and-a-reckoning.html\" title=\"\">remarkable commercial and critical success<\/a> \u2014 has also had a major political impact in Brazil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And since the film\u2019s release in November, the authorities have revised the victims\u2019 death certificates to make clear they died at the hands of the military and to reopen cold cases to see if they were connected to the military regime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBrazil still has many open wounds,\u201d said Mr. Paiva\u2019s son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, whose book about his mother\u2019s handling of his father\u2019s disappearance inspired the film. \u201cI think this whole movement has made society, especially young people, reflect on what kind of country they want.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Through the personal story of one family\u2019s ordeal at the hands of the dictatorship, the film has largely succeeded in crossing political lines and rallying Brazilians around the common idea of justice, said Fernanda Torres, whose depiction of Eunice, Mr. Paiva\u2019s widow, has earned her widespread acclaim and a nomination for best actress in Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat hasn\u2019t happened in a long time \u2014 a cultural phenomenon around which we all agree that it\u2019s not fair, that this family didn\u2019t deserve it, this father didn\u2019t deserve the fate he had,\u201d Ms. Torres said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re really living in a moment of revolution,\u201d she added. \u201cCulture has immense power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The film\u2019s message was made especially chilling because it arrived amid new allegations of modern threats to Brazil\u2019s young democracy from former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/world\/americas\/brazil-bolsonaro-coup-charges.html\" title=\"\">charged this month<\/a> with overseeing plans to stage a coup and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/19\/world\/americas\/brazil-soldiers-president-lula-assassination-plot.html\" title=\"\">kill his rival<\/a>, President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, after losing the 2022 elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That has helped expand calls for justice. Caetano Veloso, one of Brazil\u2019s most prolific singers and songwriters, said in an interview that at his most recent concerts, the enormous crowds have taken to chanting \u201cNo Amnesty\u201d \u2014 a reference seemingly to laws protecting the dictatorship, but also to new bills that could protect Mr. Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019ve never seen that,\u201d said Mr. Veloso, who was himself imprisoned and exiled during the dictatorship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Human rights groups estimate that more than 400 people were forcibly disappeared and some 20,000 were tortured in Brazil during the dictatorship. But, unlike Chile or Argentina, where many crimes committed under military dictatorships have resulted in trials and punishment, and the death tolls were much higher, Brazil has not pursued accountability for its army\u2019s atrocities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Paiva, a leftist congressman, was expelled from office by the dictatorship but continued resisting the regime, and was accused by it of exchanging letters with dissidents in exile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Brazil, the transition back to democracy was largely shaped by the military junta itself, which passed an amnesty law in 1979 shielding both dissidents and military officials from prosecution. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAmnesty, the way it was done in Brazil, erased the past,\u201d said Nilm\u00e1rio Miranda, a special adviser on memory and truth to Brazil\u2019s human rights ministry, who said he was himself a victim of torture. \u201cIt treated perpetrators like their victims, torturers like the tortured.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Attempts to hold the military responsible for dictatorship-era crimes over the years faced staunch resistance from the military, which continued to hold outsize political sway even after Brazil\u2019s return to democracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But now the film has helped initiate perhaps the most significant threat to the impunity the military has been granted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In December, Justice Flavio Dino cited the film in a ruling to revoke amnesty given to two colonels accused of killing political activists during the dictatorship. \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d has \u201cmoved millions of Brazilians,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe story of Rubens Paiva\u2019s disappearance, whose body was never found or given a proper burial, highlights the enduring pain of countless families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Justice Dino has endorsed a legal argument that, in any case where bodies are still missing, it is a \u201cpermanent crime\u201d open to prosecution until remains are found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Earlier this month, the Supreme Court also decided to review whether it should revoke amnesty in the case of Mr. Paiva. In 2014, Brazilian authorities charged five men with his torture and death; they never confessed to a crime. Two of them are still alive and they have remained mostly silent, with one telling prosecutors he was on vacation during Mr. Paiva\u2019s detention, a claim refuted by documents from that period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the case could set a legal precedent that could affect at least 41 other dictatorship-era cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a symbolic gesture, a federal body ordered the revision of 434 death certificates for people who were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship. Mr. Paiva\u2019s was the first record to be corrected, from listing no cause of death to citing the cause as \u201cunnatural, violent, caused by the Brazilian state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Crediting the film, a special government commission has also reopened a probe into the 1976 death in a car accident of former president Juscelino Kubitschek, citing evidence that it might have been orchestrated by the military dictatorship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe role of the film was extraordinary,\u201d Mr. Miranda said. \u201cArt has that power,\u201d he added, to ensure \u201chistory is not forgotten, so that it never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bolsonaro, a retired army captain who has often <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/29\/world\/americas\/brazil-bolsonaro-coup.html\" title=\"\">spoken fondly<\/a> of the dictatorship, has repeatedly attacked \u201cI\u2019m Still Here,\u201d casting it as a political film that demonizes the military and shows only \u201cone side\u201d of the story. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI\u2019m not even going to watch that movie of hers,\u201d he said in an interview with The New York Times last month, when asked if he would be rooting for Ms. Torres at Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some of Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters have similarly boycotted \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d and opposed efforts to bring the military to justice for past crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lula, on the other hand, has praised the film, calling it a \u201csource of national pride\u201d and creating <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.br\/planalto\/en\/latest-news\/2025\/01\/president-lula-issues-decree-creating-the-eunice-paiva-award-for-the-defense-of-democracy\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an award<\/a> honoring Eunice Paiva. This week, Brazil\u2019s president <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LulaOficial\/status\/1894418488674193849\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">gathered<\/a> government ministers and congressional leaders, as well as two of Mr. Paiva\u2019s grandchildren, at the presidential palace for a special screening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet, even as Brazil reckons with its somber past, some worry that justice may be coming too late. In the decades since Brazil\u2019s return to democracy, many who committed crimes during the dictatorship \u2014 including the majority of Mr. Paiva\u2019s torturers \u2014 have died without ever being held to account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBetter late than never,\u201d Marcelo Rubens Paiva said. \u201cBut why did it take so long?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Fl\u00e1via Milhorance<!-- --> contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/28\/world\/americas\/brazil-oscars-dictatorship-justice.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d \u2014 the Oscar best picture nominee about the murder of a Brazilian congressman by the country\u2019s military dictatorship \u2014 concludes with a single sentence that delivers a gut punch of historical reality: The five soldiers charged in the killing were never punished because of laws granting them amnesty. Now the film could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/28\/multimedia\/28brazil-dictatorship-bvfg\/28brazil-dictatorship-bvfg-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[192728,42922,170176,2209,2185,13406,170177,177728,137233,192850,2948,165768,193151,167210,177729,2198,1212,173107,137131,170819,188214],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249323,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249321\/revisions\/249323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}