Review of Casa de Areia

In 1910, in Maranhão, the insane Vasco de Sá moves with his pregnant urban wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) to a wilderness land near a lagoon and surrounded by shifting dunes. Sooner his workers abandon the place, and Vasco dies, leaving the two women alone and without any resources. They are supported by a local son of a former slave, Massu (Seu Jorge), and they learn how to survive creating goats. Along the years, Áurea raises her daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), hoping to move back to the capital someday. Her hope becomes anguish and despair as years go by, until her final adaptation to the place.

"Casa de Areia" is a beautiful story of hope and missed dreams. The first point to call the attention of the viewer is the wonderful landscape where the story takes place. The wind is so intense in the beginning that I need to put subtitles to understand the dialogs. The cast is leaded by two icons of the Brazilian cinema, the awesome Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter, Fernanda Torres. The story is engaging and depressive, showing the phases of loneliness, fight for survival, hope, anguish, despair and adaptation of Áurea. In the end, as a kind of consolation, she is informed by her daughter that the man reached the moon and found nothing but sand. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Casa de Areia" ("House of Sand")