House of Sand (Casa de Areia) (2006)

At its best, film transports us to an entirely different place for a couple of hours and makes us forget our troubles. Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington's film HOUSE OF SAND takes us to an entirely alien landscape and immerses us in the lives of two women with problems much larger than ours. Beginning in 1910, pregnant Aurea (Fernanda Torres, wife of Waddington) arrives in Maranhao--a region of northern Brazil characterized by vast areas of white sand—with her older husband, Vascao, who wrongly believes the area to be prosperous, and her mother, Dona Maria (Torres's real-life mother, Fernanda Montenegro). After building a house, Vasco dies, leaving the two women to fend for themselves. Aurea gives birth to a daughter, Maria, and the three generations of women will collectively spend decades trying to escape the desolate, lonely world of wind and sand. With the help of Massu (Seu Jorge), a runaway slave from a nearby settlement, they learn some survival tips, and history and technology bring them memorable encounters with people passing through their remote corner of the world.

Difficult to describe and beautiful to observe, HOUSE OF SAND was inspired by a photograph of a house buried in the sand in the same region of northern Brazil in which the film unfolds. Inventing a story about a woman who lived in the house who battles endlessly encroaching sands throughout her life provided Waddington with the seed for the screenplay. Torres and Montenegro in multiple roles at varying ages can be initially perplexing, but in the end provides unexpected depth and resonance to the proceedings. The striking locations are unlike anything normally seen on screen, and Waddington's extremely minimal usage of music in the film gives the stark landscapes a commanding presence.