Firstly, apologize my poor English and eventual grammar mistakes. Then...
Have you ever questioned yourself what's the point of living anyway? In my interpretation that's what this movie is about: the relativity of all points of view that tries to explain life itself. In fact, in some part of the movie, Einstein's theory of relativity is commented. Do you have high expectations on life? So did the mother-in-law and mainly the wife of Vasco, who owned a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived on that desert land, both wife (Áurea) and mother-in-law (Dona Maria) insisted that settling there was craziness. Dona Maria get used to the idea, but Áurea remained reluctant. Then, Vasco dies trying hard to build (a house) on sand. The rest of the movie, roughly, is Áurea and Dona Maria (and later Áurea and her daughter) struggle to survive as the dunes try to avoid it. Hopes are continuously buried as the movie goes on. In the end, Áurea (now an aged woman) finally gets the opportunity to visit a big city. When she returns (and that's the synthesis of the movie in my opinion), she tells her daughter how it was: after all it is all a handful of sand.
Have you ever questioned yourself what's the point of living anyway? In my interpretation that's what this movie is about: the relativity of all points of view that tries to explain life itself. In fact, in some part of the movie, Einstein's theory of relativity is commented. Do you have high expectations on life? So did the mother-in-law and mainly the wife of Vasco, who owned a piece of land in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived on that desert land, both wife (Áurea) and mother-in-law (Dona Maria) insisted that settling there was craziness. Dona Maria get used to the idea, but Áurea remained reluctant. Then, Vasco dies trying hard to build (a house) on sand. The rest of the movie, roughly, is Áurea and Dona Maria (and later Áurea and her daughter) struggle to survive as the dunes try to avoid it. Hopes are continuously buried as the movie goes on. In the end, Áurea (now an aged woman) finally gets the opportunity to visit a big city. When she returns (and that's the synthesis of the movie in my opinion), she tells her daughter how it was: after all it is all a handful of sand.