Sometimes, the course of a life changes suddenly and emphatically with an event so final and unequivocal that it shifts the very world on its axis. Set in the 1970s as Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship, Rubens, a former congressman, is abducted from his beachfront home. Men with guns and sour faces arrive at the door. They’ve come, they say, to take Rubens to make a statement. Who they are and where he has been removed to remain a mystery. His wife, Eunice Paiva, a mother of five, is left to reinvent herself and her family.

Among the film’s many exquisitely realised scenes, several stand out. One comes immediately after Eunice has heard from an associate of her husband the unconfirmed rumour of Rubens’ death. She has promised to take the children for ice-cream and that’s what she does, wrapping them in a protective layer of normalcy. But she scans the room in anguish, each laughing family sharing sundaes a choking reminder of the small, shared marital joys stolen from her.

This film is about the resilience of family. I’m Still Here is based on a memoir by Eunice’s son Marcelo Rubens Paiva, who co-wrote the screenplay with Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega; the considerable Paiva archive of photos and home videos was an invaluable resource.