Brazilian novelist Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the author of the book that served as the basis for the film, "I'm Still Here," poses for a photo during an interview at his home in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

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.”

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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