the house of sand (casa de areia) 2005 region free dvd5 portuguese bcbc

The House of Sand (Portuguese: Casa de Areia) is a 2005 Brazilian film directed by Andrucha Waddington. It stars real life mother and daughter Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres. The House of Sand was filmed entirely on the coast of northern Brazil, inside Lençóis Maranhenses National Park.

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Synopsis

Áurea's saga starts in 1910, when, in pursuing a dream she never shared, she arrives in a caravan at a labyrinth of sand in Maranhão, northern Brazil. Her husband, Vasco, believes this land to be prosperous and she is condemned to a life in this barren place, her only female company beingÁurea's saga starts in 1910, when, in pursuing a dream she never shared, she arrives in a caravan at a labyrinth of sand in Maranhão, northern Brazil. Her husband, Vasco, believes this land to be prosperous and she is condemned to a life in this barren place, her only female company being her mother, Dona Maria. Pregnant and dissatisfied with her destiny, she tries everything to find a way out.



Cast

Fernanda Montenegro – as Dona Maria/Áurea/Maria

Fernanda Torres – as Áurea/Maria

Ruy Guerra – as Vasco de Sá

Seu Jorge – as Massu – 1910–1919

Stênio Garcia – as Luiz – 1942

Luiz Melodia – as Massu – 1942

Enrique Díaz – as Luiz – 1919

Emiliano Queiroz – as Chico do Sal

João Acaiabe – as Massu's father

Camilla Facundes – as Maria – 1919



‘House of Sand’: A Mother, Her Daughter, and Brazil’s Bleak Yet Lovely Land

By A. O. SCOTT

Published: August 11, 2006

If anything, the title of “House of Sand” is an understatement. This lovely film, directed by Andrucha Waddington (“Me You Them”), takes place in a corner of northern Brazil that is a veritable universe of dry, swirling white dust. Like the main characters — three women of successive generations exiled from a softer, more accommodating life in the city — you grow accustomed to this landscape after a while, and come to appreciate its beauty. But at first it seems about as hospitable as the surface of Mars: gritty, windy, almost actively hostile to human habitation.



Mr. Waddington and his director of photography, Ricardo Della Rosa, use a wide-screen format and long, angled shots to capture the harsh sublimity of this desert, where the sand is relieved by strips of vegetation and an occasional glimpse of the nearby ocean. The land is such a presence in the film that it almost takes on the status of a character. It’s not just the setting for the struggles of the women, but an active agent in their destinies and the object of their loathing, their terror and, ultimately, their love.



Filmed near the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, “House of Sand” is not without its share of human grandeur, since it stars Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres, a mother and a daughter who happen to be among the national treasures of Brazilian cinema. They undertake not just two performances, but a suite, the harmonies and counterpoints of which are both subtle and breathtaking.



At the beginning Ms. Montenegro is Dona Maria, a weary matriarch accompanying her pregnant daughter, Áurea (Ms. Torres), on a trek into the middle of nowhere. The year is 1910, and Áurea is following her monomaniacal husband, who holds the deed on a few acres of howling nothingness.



Before long, Áurea’s husband’s fellow travelers have departed, and he himself has restored the phrase “bitten the dust” to its literal meaning. For help the women turn to their only neighbors, descendants of runaway slaves who populate a leafy fishing village. One of them, Massu (Seu Jorge), occupies a role in Maria and Áurea’s household somewhere between servant and husband.



As the years pass — the full span of the narrative stretches 60 years — the human relationships rise to the surface, in particular the almost wordless, emotionally complicated bond between Áurea and Massu. At different points in the story, the actresses change roles, with Ms. Montenegro settling into her daughter’s outgrown characters. She appears as Áurea in a chapter that takes place in the 1940’s, during which Ms. Torres plays a second Maria, Áurea’s daughter, who has grown up wild and angry, resentful of her mother and remote from the customs and traditions that helped Áurea and the first Maria to endure.



The story that links these moments has the clarity of a fable and the sentimental enchantment of a magic-realist novel. Mr. Waddington, who brilliantly evoked the dry, brown Brazilian backlands in “Me You Them,” brings out the psychological nuances of the story (the script is by Elena Soárez) even as he respects its bold, primal emotions and the almost classical dignity of the main characters. At first “House of Sand” may seem like a stark tale of survival, but a surprisingly lush and colorful romance blossoms in its bleak and gorgeous desert setting.