The time that crosses memory and the space that inscribes resistance

an analysis of the film “I’m still here” (2024)

Authors

Helaine de Souza Maciel Universidade Federal de Campina Grande https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0424-4100
Fábio Marques de Souza Professor Assistente Doutor na Faculdade de Linguística, Letras e Artes da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (FALLA/UEPB) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4538-3204

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18764/2525-3441v10n27.2025.06

Keywords:

chronotope, cinema, oppression, resistance

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis of the film “I’m Still Here” (2024) through the lens of the concept of the chronotope, as formulated by Mikhail Bakhtin in his reading of Dostoiévski. The research explores how cinematic time and space structure the narrative, materializing social experiences marked by multiple layers of oppression and resistance. It is based on the premise that cinema is not a mere mirror of reality, but a space of symbolic and political inscription, where bodies, voices, and silences are arranged in an affective and historical cartography. To this end, a qualitative and interpretative methodology is adopted, following Minayo (2001) and Silveira & Córdova (2009), with the aim of describing the social relations and layers of oppression present in the film. Based on the analysis of three specific scenes, the study investigates how the chronotopes of the big city, the unexpected encounter, and confinement operate in the construction of belonging, revealing the interaction between physical and subjective territories, as well as between the time of memory and the time of waiting. The results indicate that the juxtaposition of spaces and temporalities in the film not only shapes its narrative aesthetics, but also denounces the dynamics of exclusion and resistance that structure the reality of the subjects represented. Thus, cinema is reaffirmed as a field of symbolic dispute, in which time and space become central elements in the construction of existences and identities.

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Author Biographies

Helaine de Souza Maciel, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande

Currently a Ph.D. candidate and holds a Master’s degree in Language and Teaching from the Federal University of Campina Grande (PPGLE/UFCG). She holds postgraduate specializations in "Languages, their Technologies and the World of Work" from the Open and Distance Education Center of the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), and in "Curriculum and Teaching Practice in the Early Years of Elementary Education," also from UFPI. She is a researcher in the group “The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue – UEPB,” registered with the CNPq Research Group Directory (DGP), working specifically in Line 3: “TECLIN – Technologies, Cultures, and Languages.” She holds a Bachelor's degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the State University of Paraíba (UEPB) – Campus I – Campina Grande - PB. She was a scholarship holder in the Teaching Initiation Program (PIBID/UEPB/Spanish Language/Campus Campina Grande) from January 2016 to March 2018, and later served as a resident scholar in the Pedagogical Residency Program at UEPB from August 2018 to January 2020. Her research interests include: Language teacher education; Spanish language teaching and learning; Language teaching and learning mediated by digital technologies; Culture, interculturality and education; Bakhtinian dialogues; Cinema; Cinematic language; Telecollaboration and Teletandem.

Fábio Marques de Souza, Professor Assistente Doutor na Faculdade de Linguística, Letras e Artes da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (FALLA/UEPB)

Words and artistic-cultural expressions have always been a passion of mine, shaping both my personal and professional identity. With language as the core element of my academic journey, I am currently undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship in Cultural Diplomacy and Language Policy at Aswan University, Egypt, and serve as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Linguistics, Languages, and Arts and in the Graduate Program in Teacher Education at the State University of Paraíba (PPGFP-UEPB), within the research line "Languages, Cultures, and Teacher Education." I supervise Master's and Doctoral research in the Graduate Program in Language and Teaching (PPGLE-UFCG), in the research areas: 3. Language Teaching and Teacher Education; and 4. Social, Historical, and Cultural Practices of Language. My academic background spans the fields of Language Studies, Foreign Languages, Translation, International Relations, and Education. Beyond the word, cinema—a form of art that brings together various languages—served as the mediator of the reflections developed in my doctoral research (University of São Paulo – USP). Telecollaboration (Teletandem), mediated by Digital Information and Communication Technologies and aimed at university internationalization through academic, linguistic, and (inter)cultural exchanges between Brazilians and Argentinians, led to my postdoctoral research (as a PNPD-CAPES-MEC fellow) in Contemporary Education at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). I am currently the leader of the research group “The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue,” which includes the lines: i) Bakhtinian Ideas; ii) Observatory of Brazilian Foreign Policy Discourse; and iii) TECLIN – Technologies, Cultures, and Languages. I am also a member of the Center for Advanced Studies in Public Policy and Governance; InviTe (Virtual Exchange and Teletandem); and MOPRI – Media and Public Opinion in International Relations, all registered in the CNPq Research Groups Directory. My research interests revolve around: i) Dialogic Discourse Analysis; ii) The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue; iii) Cultural Diplomacy and Language Policies; iv) Brazilian Foreign Policy; and v) Applied Linguistics: teaching-learning and mediation.

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Published

2025-07-15

How to Cite

DE SOUZA MACIEL, Helaine; MARQUES DE SOUZA, Fábio.

The time that crosses memory and the space that inscribes resistance: an analysis of the film “I’m still here” (2024)

. Afluente: Revista de Letras e Linguística, v. 10, n. 27, p. 1–25, 15 Jul. 2025 Disponível em: https://cajapio.ufma.br/index.php/afluente/article/view/26514. Acesso em: 16 aug. 2025.