HOUSE OF SAND

Director: Andrucha Waddington
Cast: Fernanda Montenegro , Fernanda Torres, Ruy Guerra, Seu Jorge, Luiz Melodia
Run Time: 103 minutes
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese with English subtitles
Rating: 14A (Sexually suggestive scene, Nudity)

"What's remarkable about this confident, literate and beautifully photographed movie is that the characters' impatience and frustration never extend to the audience."

Adam Nayman , eye Weekly

HOUSE OF SAND, which screened at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival®, brings together for the first time two of Brazil 's most celebrated actresses. Academy Award®-nominee Fernanda Montenegro and Palme d'Or winner Fernanda Torres shine in this unique film about the lives of three generations of women. Brought to life by the stunning cinematography of Ricardo Della Rosa, HOUSE OF SAND celebrates the struggles, passions and deep hidden desires of people trapped by their fate.

Aurea (Fernanda Torres) is brought to the northern Brazilian town of Maranhão by her insane husband Vasco (Ruy Guerra), who suffers from delusions. A calamitous turn of events leaves Aurea, now pregnant, and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro , CENTRAL STATION) alone in the desert in a house full of sand. They eventually find friendship and food through Massu (Seu Jorge, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU), who lives at a quilombo (a self-sustaining society originally formed by escaped slaves). Aurea wrestles with her unhappy fate but slowly grows accustomed to the new rhythm of life in the dunes. Years pass and we find Aurea (now played by Montenegro ) at peace in the desert, while her wild and sexually promiscuous daughter Maria (played by Torres) lacks social propriety and longs to see the outside world.

Deftly handling a story that spans nearly sixty years, Waddington artfully incorporates seminal moments of human history into his narrative; we glimpse American warplanes escaping German U-boats and witness the 1919 solar eclipse that proved Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The passage of time, the significance of world events and the strength of Nature - manifested through sweeping shots of the horizon, the sound of the wind skimming the sand and the soft, assured pacing of Waddington's direction - are beautifully captured in this powerful film.

"Full of looming symbolism, House of Sand is a brilliant tale following a family that brings a group of settlers into the middle of the desert to start a new life."

Michael Ferraro , Film Threat