Women in the dunes search for themselves.
House of Sand
is a beautifully poignant representation of the elliptical nature of life and the inescapable human need for love and the longing for a place to call home. Set in the overwhelming ivory desert of Maranhao, Brazil, the film follows three generations of women as they struggle with a destiny entrenched in the sand. Caught in a place that could easily be on a different planet, the women, in
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almost total isolation, each find their own methods of coming to terms with their relentless surroundings.
The epic begins in 1910 with the arrival of Aurea, forced by her maniacal husband to leave a life in the city to build a colony in the outer reaches of the country. Pregnant and with only her mother to accompany her, Aurea, after her husband's swift demise, is trapped in the labyrinth of sand, a month's walk from civilization. Though the sea is accessible, there is no port and no boats can break through the strong current. The only settlers are descendants of runaway slaves who have never left their homeland. A widowed fisherman named Massu (Seu Jorge) is drawn to the ladies and serves as the muted patriarch to a literally sinking house. Each generation attempts in their own way to escape the land, but in the end they find peace and comfort in themselves and each other.
Real-life mother-and-daughter duo Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres play the three women in various stages of their lives. The transformation from character to character is unparalleled, the two actresses mimicking the strength and fragility of each other with powerful ease. Through them, the passage of time from
1920 to 1970 is seamlessly achieved.
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The real lead of the film, however, is the desert itself, enrapturing the viewer in its luminous majesty, simultaneously dwarfing and enhancing the significance of the human story. In one scene, Aurea and Maria chase a caravan down a trodden stretch of sand, only to have the wind cheekily wipe the trail clean. The shimmering landscape is a living organism all its own, feeding on the fears and desires of its inhabitants, considering nothing precious and washing away all traces of life and memory.
In a deeply effective choice, the film is completely devoid of scored music, each sound originating from the howling wind and beating earth of the desert itself. When the strings of a violin are finally heard, its sublimity resonates inside the soul in a way only truly understood by its dispossessed inhabitants.
House of Sand
is a perceptive, enduring and lyrical representation of an ethereal world, which somehow holds the secrets to our own.
