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Filmed entirely on the magnificent, sandy coast of northern Brazil, Ãurea's saga begins in 1910, in Maranhão, where her fanatical husband has relocated his family to start a farm. Desperate and pregnant, Ãurea (Fernanda Torres) longs to return to the city, but cannot traverse the dunes with her aging mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) in tow. When calamity strikes, the two women find themselves stranded. Eventually, they settle among the shifting sands and Ãurea finds peace. But her passionate daughter, Maria, longs to explore the world beyond the dunes. This profound portrait of passing generations has established Andrucha Waddington as one of the most exciting directors in Brazil today.The landscape looks like the surface of the moon. Set in Br! azil's Maranhão desert,
House of Sand follows three generations of women, from 1910 to 1969, as they eke out a living from this hostile environment. Oafish Vasco (director Ruy Guerra) brings pregnant wife Ãurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother, Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro,
Central Station), from the city to make a new start. Shortly after they arrive, fate takes him out of the picture. Mother and daughter muddle through with the help of slave descendents. Wary at first, Massu (Seu Jorge,
City of God) takes a particular shine to the duo. The story then skips ahead to 1919, when an escape route materializes. There will be two more shifts in time. By 1942, Ãurea's daughter, Maria (Torres), has grown into impetuous womanhood, while Ãurea (Montenegro) and Massu (Luiz Melodia) have settled into middle age. In the final section, set during the year of the first lunar landing, Ãurea (Montenegro) is around the same age as her mother at the start of the ! film. With the exception of Camilla Facundes as nine-year-old ! Maria, T orres and her real-life mother assume every female role. What does it all mean? Andrucha Waddington (
Me You Them) doesn't burden his enigmatic epic with a singular message, but those who appreciate dust-swept dramas like
Woman in the Dunes and
Walkabout aren't likely to hold it against him. The point seems to be that the human--especially the
female--capacity for survival knows no bounds. --
Kathleen C. Fennessy Stills from House of Sand (click for larger image)
Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. What begins as a struggle over a rundown bungalow spirals into a clash that propels everyone involved toward a shocking resolution. "The surprise ending will leave you breathless!" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood! )Jennifer Connelly followed up her Academy Award for A Beau! tiful Mi nd with this dark but moving story of small mistakes that escalate, with tragic necessity, to disaster. In House of Sand and Fog, Kathy (Connelly) gets evicted from her house for failing to pay a tax she never should have been charged in the first place. The house is swiftly put up for auction and bought by a former military officer from Iran named Behrani (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast). When legal efforts fail her, Kathy turns to a sympathetic cop (Ron Eldard, Bastard Out of Carolina), who wants out of a loveless marriage and who's willing to step over legal boundaries if it might give him a fresh start. Topnotch performances by the entire cast make House of Sand and Fog a compelling psychological drama; your sympathies will be pulled in all directions. --Bret Fetzer
