The House of Sand
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2007) |
The House of Sand (Casa de Areia) | |
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Columbia TriStar Filmes do Brasil | |
Release date |
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Running time | 115 minutes |
Country | Brazil |
Language | Portuguese |
Budget | US$3.4 million |
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.
Plot
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (July 2016) |
In 1910, pregnant Áurea (Torres) along with her mother, Maria (Montenegro) arrive at a remote,
However, soon enough Vasco's workers abandon the farm. Vasco, enraged over this betrayal, dies when he accidentally buries himself under a heap of construction material for the half-finished house. This leaves the two women with no way of returning to the city. Left to their own devices, they venture out to explore the area. They find a fishing hut on the shores of the ocean and notice that Massu (Seu Jorge), the fisherman, has salt which he regularly obtains from his father on the nearby Island. Massu takes them there, as they seek to follow the
Unable to return for now, Áurea and Maria get settled and with the help of Massu start a small farming operation. Nine years after their arrival, Áurea still longs to return to her former life while her mother seems quite content since she feels she does not have anything worthwhile to return to. Aurea has been purchasing beasts of burden to venture out of the sandy trap. When the old trader dies, Áurea, following a fresh trail in the sand by herself, sets out to return her family to civilization. She finds an international scientific expedition that, for the purpose of observing the
Luiz had not only told her that he wanted to join the newly established Brazilian Air Force; he had also told her that the scientists would come back in a few months to continue their studies. She and her daughter check back regularly where the expedition had established a geodesic marker since Áurea does not want to stay in the desert mainly because, as she confides to her daughter, she misses "real music", that is, the classical music she played on the piano when she was younger. The expedition returns but Áurea misses it. Massu, who saw it with his son, did not tell her about it. When Aurea realizes that she had missed her lifeline back to her world, she resigns herself to her fate and links up with Massu. As young Maria grows older, Áurea is troubled by the fact that she, out of boredom, has become a drunk and cheap prostitute for the young men of the Island, aborting her pregnancies.
Their fate is fundamentally altered when, in 1942 (the year Brazil declared war on the Axis powers), a Brazilian military plane crashes in the ocean nearby. A search party is sent out that is commanded by Luiz, now a high-ranking officer with the Brazilian Air Force. Luiz, who is married, first sees Maria and is reminded by her of her mother Áurea (in fact, Maria now is played by Fernanda Torres, who first played young Áurea; Áurea now is played by Fernanda Montenegro who first played Áurea's mother, Maria). Eventually, he meets Áurea in person who begs him to take Maria with him. This he does, promising to look after her, while Áurea contently stays with Massu in the desert.
About three decades later, Maria finally returns to the house she grew up in. She finds her gray-haired mother, sitting by herself at their old kitchen table. They happily reunite, and Maria brings deep joy to Áurea when she plays a tape-recording of "real music",
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
Production
In this movie Andrucha Waddington directs his wife Fernanda Torres in a sex scene with Seu Jorge. He said the couple was afraid that scene would really end their marriage.[2]
Awards
This film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.[3]
Footnotes
- ^ This expedition, headed by British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington, is a historical fact. One party observed the eclipse on the island Príncipe, to the west of equatorial Africa's coast; another did the same in Brazil. However, the Brazilian location was not Maranhão but rather Sobral, Ceará. See Eddington experiment.
- ^ "Filmar em família e as cenas de sexo". revistaepoca.globo.com. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
- ^ "House of Sand Wins Alfred P. Sloan Prize at 2006 Sundance Film Festival" (PDF). 27 January 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 April 2007.
External links
- The House of Sand at IMDb
- The House of Sand at AllMovie