There was something about the Paiva family home that Walter Salles never forgot. It was located a few blocks from the beach in Rio de Janeiro. The doors and gates were always unlocked, the windows open to let in the sunlight and the sea breeze. It was filled with music and dancing, parties and people, debates and ideas. But all that changed in 1971, when Rubens Paiva, a former left-wing congressman turned engineer, was taken away by the police or the military (it wasn’t clear at first) to be interrogated, tortured, and eventually killed. That left his wife, Eunice, and their five children to pick up the pieces and search for answers, which were in short supply as Brazil entered seven years of a military dictatorship that would last for another 14.

“There was so much life in the house. It was a place we all wanted to wander through,” says Salles, who visited the family as a teenager. “One day we passed by and it was completely closed off and guarded by the police. You can imagine the shock.”

Salles became one of Brazil's top filmmakers, spending much of his career dramatizing his country's slow, often sluggish, move toward democracy in films like "Central Station." But "I'm Still Here," which documents that harrowing period in the Paivas' life, is perhaps his most personal yet, because it's about people he knew so well growing up. What he's accomplished is nothing short of a triumph, and also a stark reminder of the dangers of authoritarianism. The film debuted to rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival, with critics hailing Fernanda Torres' performance as Eunice as Oscar-worthy. The film will screen at this year's Toronto Film Festival before Sony Pictures Classics releases it domestically this fall.

Although the film deals with explosive subject matter, Salles took a restrained approach to the production. He resisted close-ups, push-ins or other camera movements that would have heightened the tension in a melodramatic way. "I wasn't trying to amplify emotions," he says. "I wanted to be honest."