Casa de Areia (2005)

Director:

Andrucha Waddington

Writers:

Elena Soarez (screenplay)
Luiz Carlos Barreto (story) ...

Release Date:

13 May 2005 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A woman is taken along with her mother in 1910 to a far-away desert by her husband, and after his passing, is forced to spend the next 59 years of her life hopelessly trying to escape it.

Plot Keywords:

1910s | Dunes | Slave | Desert | Brazil

Awards:

10 wins & 23 nominations

Cast

Fernanda Montenegro	...	Dona Maria / Áurea / Maria
Fernanda Torres	...	Áurea / Maria
Ruy Guerra	...	Vasco de Sá
Seu Jorge	...	Massu - 1910-1919
Stênio Garcia	...	Luiz - 1942
Luiz Melodia	...	Massu - 1942
Enrique Díaz	...	Luiz - 1919
Emiliano Queiroz	...	Chico do Sal
João Acaiabe	...	Pai de Massu
Camilla Facundes	...	Maria - 1919
Haroldo Costa	...	Capataz
Jorge Mautner	...	Cientista
Nelson Jacobina	...	Cientista
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zumbi Bahia	...	Carregador Vasco #1
Jefferson de Almeida Barbosa	...	Mirinho (1919)
Wadson Martins Costa	...	Mirinho - 1942
Urias de Oliveira Filho	...	Carregador Vasco 2
Guilherme Júnior	...	Pescador Fogueira
Carlos Henrique Nascimento	...	Pescador do Entreposto
Fernando Torres	...	(archive footage)

Also Known As:

House of Sand (International: English title)
The House of Sand (USA) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some graphic sexuality.

Runtime:

USA:115 min

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:R | Hong Kong:III | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | New Zealand:R13 | France:Unrated | Singapore:R21 | Brazil:16

Filming Locations:

Lençóis Maranhenses, Maranhão, Brazil

Company:

Columbia TriStar Filmes do Brasil

Trivia:

Director Waddington wrote the two lead roles especially for his wife Ms. Torres and his mother-in-law, Ms. Montenegro.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The movie takes pains to make reference to real events. However, the location marker erected for the scientific party at the total solar eclipse shows the wrong date. It should be 29.05.1919.

Soundtrack:

Prelude Opus 28, nº 15

Apart from the visuals, the film has little to say

Set in the white desert of Maranhao in Northern Brazil where drifting sands can ruthlessly bury an entire house in a matter of minutes, Audrucha Waddington's House of Sand is reminiscent of Teshigahara's great 1964 film Woman in the Dunes but without its dramatic tension or emotional involvement. In House of Sand, there is no struggle for survival against nature or a pervasive feeling of being trapped, only ennui and grudging acceptance, interrupted by casual sex. Based on a story co-written by Elena Soarez and Luiz Carlos Barreto, the film follows three generations of women but confuses the viewer with sudden, unannounced time shifts and interchanging roles played by the lead actresses.

In 1910, Aurea (Fernanda Torres), her husband Vasco de Sa (Ruy Guerra), and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, the real mother of Ms. Torres) travel with other settlers to a remote desert outpost to set up camp on the land he had purchased. Aurea is pregnant and immediately wants to return home after they are approached by black slaves who carry machetes. The settlers soon depart in fear leaving the two women at the mercy of Vasco who has become increasingly brutal and unstable. After Vasco is killed by a falling roof, the two women try to adjust to the harsh life of the desert but look for a way to leave.

Their first ray of hope is from salt deliverer Chico (Emiliano Queiroz), from the neighboring area but he dies suddenly from a cough, As the years go by, Aurea's daughter (Camilla Facundes) named Maria after her mother, is now ten years old. The women have been helped to survive by a former slave named Massu (Seu Jorge), now a widower, who teaches them how to get food. Another chance to leave occurs when Luis (Enrique Díaz), a soldier who has come to the desert with a group of scientists to photograph the solar eclipse of 1919, tells Aurea that he will take them out of the desert but fate intervenes. When Aurea returns to get her mother and daughter, she finds that her house has collapsed, killing her mother, though Massu has rescued Maria.

Accepting their fate, the two abandon hope of ever leaving the desert, though the story does have a surprise in store for us at the end. House of Sand's camera-work is astonishing with gorgeous shots by cinematographer Ricardo Della Rosa not only of the white sand but also of the pristine sky and the blue sea but the characters never seem to notice the world around them and express no relationship, either emotional or spiritual, to their surroundings. Apart from the visuals, the film has little to say other than -- time goes by and it's not too interesting when you're alone but you can get used to anything and anyway, men come and go but the strength of women endures. All we need is an ersatz ghost to put us in Almodovar territory.