ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

jsinger90 The truth is that it has been difficult to me to enter a little in this film, I recognize that at first it is not easy that it hooks you, given that the requirements do not help to entering in the film, on the contrary, they identify a place of the that little people it would want to go or at least to live. A Brazilian zone very arid, desert, suns sand, and with the minimum of water to survive.This makes that the role of the actors/actresses is more distinguished, more imported, for such keeps on being entered in their so particular world. Of first everybody we identify with the protagonist, feeble delivery of the story, pregnant woman who wishes to go in order to have her son in another place where the life is easier. Some characters that they sell are from the civilization and therefore they know that the to leave that place is necessary in order to make something in their lives. Him, the husband, a crazy man who does not want to know nothing of the civilization denies her, his son and the mother of her the possibility to come back there.Detached they will be other circumstances and characters who will avoid the power to leave this desert place. The same actresses embody characters who evolve during the years, and interpret equally the mother, the daughter and the grandson although it is not makes stranger and do not make it enough understandable and at all confusing in a way.To highlight the erotic scene, among Areia i Massu, a scene full of exoticism and sexuality, of the most exciting and intense that I have seen in the cinema in a lot of time. I believe that this film does not stop being a metaphor about our lives, about the desire to bring about our dreams and to wish the improvement of our reality. And like once not have to achieve these dreams, we end up clutching in our realities, and to the people that we love.The final comment where Maria tells her mother Areia, already with a very advanced age, that the man has gone to the moon, it is great and and it finishes with a very personal message of the creator of the story. I interpret with this end, that Maria communicates metaphorically her mother Areia, that even if she has been able to go from there, in the requirement she has found the same miseries and difficulties. A great end.

emastreem it lets you get a lot from this film, it gives itself to you. it could be mistaken for a drama set within a interesting set of variables, but it is more a piece of art about humanity/nature/time/space...wish i could elaborate better. It is defineately grammy or whatever Oscar worthy, it gives you that amazing emotional happy/sad/inspired/impowered/deep type feeling. sorry that's my review, i'm glad i don't have to read it. okay, they are making right more lines, how about something specific, umm, no. how about, it's a bunch of little things that you are trying to put together and make sense of, each of those parts is compelling in itself with amazing scenes sound etc. then at the end you realize the overall feeling of the movie is deep and grander then you thought. you don't hate or love any of the characters, the characters in this movie are more like the medium, with the desert being the canvas, you see stroke by stroke then an amazing full shot at the end........................another thought is having these humans interacting in this huge space, it allows the feelings to fill the whole space showing how big egos,feelings etc are., amazing perspective

D A From Brazil begins this unusual tale taking place in their early 20th century's untamed deserts, leading a distraught man, his wife, with family and following, to the absurd notion of settling into the middle of an elusive waterhole, centered in the middle of an endless sandscape, into one eventual House of Sand. What transpires from the mysterious setup of this piece is captured with quite dignity, accentuated with the production values that would have any techie humbled by the tough shoot this crew must have undergone to balance the artsy direction to the harsh environment. It is to the film's detriment then, that the vast majority of time is spent milking the unique aesthetics involved here, insensitively editing many of the beautifully photographed shots which adds up to a whole that unwittingly imitates it's protagonist's plight a little too closely- that of sinking into the ground of nothingness. Fortunately a cleverly conceived, though questionably rendered plot device snaps the viewer's interest back late in the game, even rounding out the mostly one trick affair on a profound note. This extra dimension carved out in the third act does save this House from blowing away for the artistic excuse a lot of it seems to be.

gradyharp CASA DE AREIA ('HOUSE OF SAND) is a masterpiece of film-making from Brazil. Written by Elena Soarez and Luis Carlos Barreto the story seems more a magical metaphor than a tale of real life - until the film concludes and the immediacy and universality of the messages haunt the viewer's mind for hours. It is a film directed by Andrucha Waddington with a cast of superb actors but the focus of the film, the films central character, is the bleak isolation of the sweeping desert of Northern Brazil.The film opens in 1910 with a caravan of wind swept characters appearing in the distance of the dunes of the desert, a group of wayfarers apparently escaping the poverty of the bog city to find a home of their own, land that can be called something that belongs to them. They are led by Vasco de Sá (Ruy Guerra) and his wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro), both of whom plead with Vasco to let them return to the poverty of the city instead of being forced to attempt to exist in the sands of the windy desert. Vasco is determined, builds a house, forces the women to live there and the others to pitch tents to exist. Áurea becomes pregnant, Vasco is confronted by the real owners of the land led by Massu (Seu Jorge), and must trade his possessions to remain in his 'home', a home which crashes around him leaving Vasco dead and Áurea and Dona Maria to fend for themselves. The others desert the two women and the women find their only help in Massu.Time passes slowly (to 1919) and the changing sands begin to bury the house. Áurea, now a mother of a daughter Maria (Camilla Facundes), finds a telescope and sets out to see if she can find its owner and a way out of the desert. She encounters a group of scientists photographing the solar eclipse, a group protected by Luiz (Enrique Díaz) who bonds with Áurea, has a night affair with her, and then promises to take Áurea, her old mother Dona Maria, and her young daughter Maria to the city. Áurea sets out for her house only to find it now covered with a dune, her mother dead and her daughter Maria traumatized: the chance for escape is gone.We move to 1942 and daughter Maria is now a woman (played by Fernanda Montenegro) who has bonded with Massu (now played by Luiz Melodia) and her sensual daughter Maria (played by Fernanda Torres) are still waiting for the return of Luiz. The older Luiz (Stênio Garcia) returns and Maria seduces him, even though Luiz knows she is his old lover's daughter. He returns to the house, meets the 'Áurea/Maria' he loved and ultimately agrees to take the younger Maria to the city: the older Maria elects to stay with Massu. Again time leaps to 1970 and the younger Maria in hippie outfit drives out to see her mother (both Marias are now played by Fernanda Montenegro) and the reunion of hopes and dreams of over 60 years are realized in a manner that brings the film to a haunting conclusion.The cast is extraordinarily fine, blending into the movement of nature and symbolizing the elements of love, longing, loneliness, destiny, and survival. The repeated use of the two major actresses is a stroke of genius: we are caught up in the intuitive understanding of all the manifestations of these two women over time as they change roles not only as actresses but also as blending characters.In a fine touch of genius, the films credits are rolled as Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere plays the Chopin 'Raindrop Prelude'. It is a moving ending to a magnificent film. Highly recommended. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Grady Harp