January 4, 2025 – This based-on-fact film is set in Brazil over several decades, beginning around 1971, when Brazil was being governed by a US-backed repressive military dictatorship. It effectively tells the story of one family's struggle after the father's murder by state actors. The film is in Portugese with English subtitles.

Former congressman Rubens Paiva (played by Selton Mello) and his family, after years of exile, have returned to Rio de Janeiro where Rubens is working as a civil engineer. He plans to build a new house, while in secret, he is helping other expatriates. The kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador to Brazil leads to a crackdown on all anti-government sympathizers, and Rubens is taken away.

Rubens' wife, Eunice Paiva (played by Fernanda Torres) and one of his daughters, Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) are also taken in for questioning. Since Eunice is largely unaware of her husband's activities and Eliana knows very little about them, the two women are released, Eliana after a day, while Eunice is held for weeks. Rubens, however has disappeared.

Eunice reaches out to Rubens friends, trying to find out what has happened to him. She tries to get information through court action, too. The government denies everything. Eunice tries to hold the family together, but has financial difficulties because, being a woman, she cannot access her husband's bank accounts without his death certificate.

Reluctantly, Eunice comes to face the fact that she alone is the head of the household and must find a way to provide for her family. She makes some bold moves to find ways, not entirely legal, to sell the family properties, move to Sao Paulo and go back to college. The children, not knowing the fate of their father, worry that he will come home, only to find that they have moved away.

The bulk of this movie is about the disappearance of Rubens and the trauma suffered by his family, including his five children, some of whom are too young to understand what is going on at first. The story skips ahead several times to catch up with the Paiva family to show what happens to the family years after Rubans' disappearance.

This movie is a stark reminder of the dangers of dictatorships where the rule of law is abandoned in the name of conservatism. It is also a tale of courage, determination and perseverance in the pursuit of truth and justice for the illegal arrest, torture and disappearance of Rubens Paiva. It is also about how the success of Eunice Paiva had in keeping her family together and embarking on her own successful career as a lawyer.

The acting, especially by Fernanda Torres, is terrific in this movie. The direction, by Walter Salles of “Paris, Je T'aime” successfully illustrates the fear, tension and dismay of the family caught in this awful situation. This film rates an A.

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