'House Of Sand' a beautiful drama

PLOT: This Brazilian turn-of-the-century drama finds an elderly mother and pregnant daughter living in the remote desert after being dragged there by the younger woman's husband. Eventually, circumstances beyond their control shape their destinies in ways they couldn't have imagined.

Incredibly, the Brazilian film, The House Of Sand, was a special presentation at last year's Toronto International Film Festival.

I say incredibly because I can't believe it took this long for such a lovely film to see the light of day in Toronto.

Essentially a dramatic saga within an art-house film, The House Of Sand tells the story of two Brazilian women who find themselves living in extremely difficult conditions in the middle of nowhere at the turn of the century.

The younger woman Aurea (Fernanda Montenegro) is pregnant and at the mercy of her demented older husband Vasco (Ruy Guerra) and has also brought along her sick, elderly mother Don Maria (Fernanda Torres).

In the movie's striking opening scenes, the two women struggle to walk in their long skirts through the glorious-looking sand dunes of Maranhao, Brazil, and those humans-versus-the-elements images evoked by Jane Campion's The Piano come to mind.

"This is no place for a child -- this is no place for anyone," Aurea tells Vasco, who isn't willing to listen.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the workers hired by Vasco soon desert the camp after being confronted by a hostile group of runaway slaves.

The next morning an outraged Vasco attempts to continue working on the house, built out of palms and clay on the sand near a lagoon, but perishes almost immediately.

The two women then find themselves alone, having to fend for themselves in rather grim and desolate surroundings.

But their plight almost immediately gains the sympathies of of one of the initially hostile runaway slaves, Massu. He's played by Brazilian singer-turned-actor Seu Jorge, who was so memorable in The Life Aquatic as the Portuguese-singing, Bowie-covers-playing shipmate.

Massu fishes on the ocean with his young son and lives in a simple, rustic hut, and offers up what food he can, but a rival for Aurea's attentions soon comes in the form of a dashing army officer (Enrique Diaz) who's leading a scientific expedition through the desert.

The House Of Sand, which follows the women's lives over six decades, is remarkable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it marks the first time that the acting mother and daughter team of Montenegro and Torres have appeared in a movie together.

Both convey beauty, strength and dignity in their respective multiple roles -- to say anything more would give too much away -- and are thoroughly believable and incredibly moving.

Meanwhile, the panaoramic imagery (the movie was shot in a national park in Brazil) is awe-inspiring, whether it's Auera sleeping amongst the dunes in the starlight, or later witnessing a rare solar eclipse in the middle of the day.

Director Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them), who has an extensive background in making commercials, finds that experience paying off as the astonishing visuals become just as important as the accomplished acting.

Often little has to be said to say so much.

The House Of Sand is in Portuguese with English sub-titles.

BOTTOM LINE: Incredible desert scenery and moving performances by real-life mother and daughter Brazilian actresses Fernanda Montenegro and Fernanda Torres make this art-house film one of the must-sees of the year.

posted by nscafuro @ 6:20 AM