Casa de Areia

This is a beautiful, poignant movie that reminded me of "The English Patient'. Filmed in the deserts of the Brazilian state of Maranhao it has stunning scenery that brings a backdrop of authenticity to the story line. I recommend viewing 'the making of' featurette, which depicts the difficulties, encountered in filming in such a harsh environment. It is interesting to note that although there are relatively few characters, the story can still rivet. I was able to identify with the main characters and feel their emotions. I do admit that the story is slow at first but in the end, it will leave you smiling and clamoring for more.

The one negative comment I have is about the scene(s) that caused the film to be rated 'R'. Although I can understand the need for it, I think the producer could have use some restraint and toned it down a bit, this would have made for a different rating and permitted a broader audience to appreciate this gem.

I kept the postcard. I had narrowly missed this film when I was in Brasil, where it went on to run for 14 consecutive weeks. They had those little free postcards they use to advertise just about anything these days. The House of Sand postcards were particularly beautiful, so I took them home and kept them.

More than a year later, the postcards are in a dusty folder somewhere, but the image remains in my mind, and leapt out at me when I saw the film advertised in the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival. It's one of those exquisite photos, rivalling even The English Patient, and conveys stark beautiful lighting, a woman, and white desert dunes. Worth seeing for the cinematography alone surely, but it turns out to be one of those gems that every festival-goer prays for.

On the shimmering sandy plains of northern Maranhão, three generations of women live dreams and passions unwillingly inherited, experiencing profound depths of despair and fulfilment. Opening scenes of sweeping white sand dunes focus in to the wind and weather torn faces of a small stream of people, battling forward. Áurea has come to this wilderness at the will of her husband, who has some title deeds near a lagoon. Twists of fate soon leave her isolated in this desolate place with only her mother, Dona Maria, and pregnant. At first desperate to find a way out, Áurea gradually comes to realise she belongs here.

The scenery (shot in beautiful 2K widescreen) brings together the ferocity of nature and the elements, reflected in the passion of the leading character, her indomitable spirit, and her adaptability. Bringing together some of the finest talent in Brasil, House of Sand works on a visual and dramatic level that is heightened by an artistry that is almost metaphysical. In the wilderness, a person's relationship with themselves becomes different, as happens with Áurea. There is just you - no emergency services to fall back on. The senses are turned in on themselves and the workings of the 'real world' become less important. In the film, a long period of time is marked by various events, either astronomical (the solar eclipse photographed by scientists in Brasil in 1919 that led to the proof of Einstein's theory of relativity), or completely external (a war, and later the landing of a man on the moon) to the real world lived in by these women over a period of 60 years. The desert is the nothingness, the shifting sands to which all return. The relativity within their lives forms an ongoing story that moves from the woman to her daughter. This continuity is reflected symbolically by both lead actresses playing different women at different periods of those characters' lives - although the make-up is sufficient to maintain a straightforward, linear story (although as well as being two of the most renowned actresses in Brasil, they also happen to be real life mother and daughter).

Dialogue and background music are both pared down to enhance the images and scenes. Said scriptwriter Elena Soáres, "Dialogue is something dangerous because it is almost the opposite of cinema. One can fall into a trap. One tends to resolve everything through dialogue but cinema works with another peculiarity. It resolves itself with the image." Similarly music is an important theme, the thing that Áurea most misses, so is not added in the usual overt way just as background.

For Áurea, the wilderness she lives in, its nothingness, is the absence of all that is desired. Sand that even (at one point) covers her physical house. But, like the men who went to the moon - all that was there was nothing - in that search was found something that no physical prize could equate. House of Sand is one of those timeless masterpieces that occurs very infrequently. It is the jewel that makes worthwhile wading through an endless smorgasbord of lesser films to find.

CASA DE AREIA ('HOUSE OF SAND) is a masterpiece of film-making from Brazil. Written by Elena Soarez and Luis Carlos Barreto the story seems more a magical metaphor than a tale of real life - until the film concludes and the immediacy and universality of the messages haunt the viewer's mind for hours. It is a film directed by Andrucha Waddington with a cast of superb actors but the focus of the film, the films central character, is the bleak isolation of the sweeping desert of Northern Brazil.

The film opens in 1910 with a caravan of wind swept characters appearing in the distance of the dunes of the desert, a group of wayfarers apparently escaping the poverty of the bog city to find a home of their own, land that can be called something that belongs to them. They are led by Vasco de Sá (Ruy Guerra) and his wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro), both of whom plead with Vasco to let them return to the poverty of the city instead of being forced to attempt to exist in the sands of the windy desert. Vasco is determined, builds a house, forces the women to live there and the others to pitch tents to exist. Áurea becomes pregnant, Vasco is confronted by the real owners of the land led by Massu (Seu Jorge), and must trade his possessions to remain in his 'home', a home which crashes around him leaving Vasco dead and Áurea and Dona Maria to fend for themselves. The others desert the two women and the women find their only help in Massu.

Time passes slowly (to 1919) and the changing sands begin to bury the house. Áurea, now a mother of a daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), finds a telescope and sets out to see if she can find its owner and a way out of the desert. She encounters a group of scientists photographing the solar eclipse, a group protected by Luiz (Enrique Díaz) who bonds with Áurea, has a night affair with her, and then promises to take Áurea, her old mother Dona Maria, and her young daughter Maria to the city. Áurea sets out for her house only to find it now covered with a dune, her mother dead and her daughter Maria traumatized: the chance for escape is gone.

We move to 1942 and daughter Maria is now a woman (played by Fernanda Montenegro) who has bonded with Massu (now played by Luiz Melodia) and her sensual daughter Maria (played by Fernanda Torres) are still waiting for the return of Luiz. The older Luiz (Stênio Garcia) returns and Maria seduces him, even though Luiz knows she is his old lover's daughter. He returns to the house, meets the 'Áurea/Maria' he loved and ultimately agrees to take the younger Maria to the city: the older Maria elects to stay with Massu. Again time leaps to 1970 and the younger Maria in hippie outfit drives out to see her mother (both Marias are now played by Fernanda Montenegro) and the reunion of hopes and dreams of over 60 years are realized in a manner that brings the film to a haunting conclusion.

The cast is extraordinarily fine, blending into the movement of nature and symbolizing the elements of love, longing, loneliness, destiny, and survival. The repeated use of the two major actresses is a stroke of genius: we are caught up in the intuitive understanding of all the manifestations of these two women over time as they change roles not only as actresses but also as blending characters.

In a fine touch of genius, the films credits are rolled as Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere plays the Chopin 'Raindrop Prelude'. It is a moving ending to a magnificent film. Highly recommended. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Grady Harp

This film is a slow-starter but patient viewers will be rewarded with something quite magical and probably memorable. The 2 lead actresses are very famous in Brazil and their performances here are superb. The film brings to my mind Jane Campion's late 90s 'The Piano', which is similarly arty, demanding on the viewer and takes place years ago in a remote part of New Zealand. One tends to either like it a lot or not at all. I grade it 7.5 and recommend it with the disclaimer that, except for the star power of the actresses, it is not commercial. It's ambitious, arguably pretentious, but effective. If you let it get to you it will.

In 1910, in Maranhão, the insane Vasco de Sá moves with his pregnant urban wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) to a wilderness land near a lagoon and surrounded by shifting dunes. Sooner his workers abandon the place, and Vasco dies, leaving the two women alone and without any resources. They are supported by a local son of a former slave, Massu (Seu Jorge), and they learn how to survive creating goats. Along the years, Áurea raises her daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), hoping to move back to the capital someday. Her hope becomes anguish and despair as years go by, until her final adaptation to the place.

"Casa de Areia" is a beautiful story of hope and missed dreams. The first point to call the attention of the viewer is the wonderful landscape where the story takes place. The wind is so intense in the beginning that I need to put subtitles to understand the dialogs. The cast is leaded by two icons of the Brazilian cinema, the awesome Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter, Fernanda Torres. The story is engaging and depressive, showing the phases of loneliness, fight for survival, hope, anguish, despair and adaptation of Áurea. In the end, as a kind of consolation, she is informed by her daughter that the man reached the moon and found nothing but sand. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Casa de Areia" ("House of Sand")