Sometimes, the greatest horrors of history can come from how easily violence and cruelty is enacted by faces you never see. This is what not only allows them to continue carrying out grave injustices, but makes holding them accountable next to impossible.
In Walter Salles’ drama “I’m Still Here,” which is based on the memoir of the same name, this lack of justice instills the film with an agonizing sense of despair. However, Salles also injects it with rich humanity by ensuring the faces of those trying to survive are the ones that we never forget. Just as there is pain from all we don’t see, there is a sense of tragic poetry from following a person who dedicates their life to the pursuit of justice even as it remains in short supply for them.