At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This movie is frustrating to watch because it had such strong potential to be a sweeping drama that intertwines the wonders of nature and humanity through the passage of time. It started out swimmingly in the waves of pastured wind blown sand and dunes. But slowly it gives way to lack of plausibility and stifled characters, focusing instead on the sweeping white-washed landscape to drive the movie. While the actress playing the daughter is a competent actress, she is just not right for the role. This is the character which holds the thread of time throughout the entire movie, from the past (with her mother) to the present (herself) and future (her daughter), a parallel for the changes in the world (via Brazil) from the early 1900's to the 1960's. For this to work, this main character needs to have the ability to draw one in, such that one inadvertently has the emotional perspective of things through her eyes. This could not be achieved with this actress, hence one remains but simply an observer of an obstinate unlikeable woman plodding along a very uneven plot, too consciously framed by wonderful landscapes. It enriches the eyes, but not the heart and spirit.The quick jump of time frame doesn't help, especially when no proper explanations are provided for improbable event.s Example: how did two woman with no farming resources nor skill amass a herd of goats? Or, how did they get an endless supply of clothing's for three woman if they are supposedly so far removed from civilization that they can't even leave the place? Or, why chop down a tree for no reason when she could enquire from nearby others where her daughter and mother was? Why suddenly have sex with the man (for the first time) in broad daylight when there was opportunities a plenty through the many many years? And on and on….Utilizing the same two actresses to play each other in successive generations is a big mistake - they are so unalike in looks and characters, the ploy just make it jarring and disconnected … dissociating the viewer further from these characters.In the end, one has to just ignore the emotionally distant characters (except the mother/grandmother) and disconnectedness of it all and just enjoy the sceneries. It seems the director is trying hard to just string scenes together, and creating implausible situations and disjointed dialogue just to get some particular outcome, and hope the plot holds up … it doesn't unfortunately.Like the sand dunes, this one builds up early but get blown away in bits, and in the end remains just something visually 'nice' but only in temporary form, and from a distance.

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

Casa de Areia, better known in English speaking countries by the title, House of Sand, is a magnificently shot film of three generations of mothers and daughters covering a 60-year struggle to fulfill a dream.The story is set in an isolated white dessert dunes in the northern Brazil . The beautiful sand swells become characters in the film as they change with time. The landscape is heightened when sapphire waters speckle the dunes as far as one can see.In 1910, this seldom visited locale is the place where Vasco brings his younger wife, Aurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother, Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro ) to settle and build a homestead. Before long, Vasco dies leaving his pregnant wife and mother-in-law trapped in a place they cannot escape.Montenegro, who in 1999, was nominated for Best Actress for her role in the international film, Central Station, once again shows how one can communicate so much without saying a word. At one point in this film she leaves and returns to play her own daughter who is now grown and has an adult child. Her widowed daughter also trades places to play that adult child. All this might sound confusing but its not. The film evolves through many years at a pace which creates a comfort level allowing you to accept these women as they transition through each role. The depth of the relationships between the two are so entwined on screen you find it easier to understand knowing they are real-life mother and daughter.Casa de Areia takes you on a journey you are happy to be a part of. It's a journey, although difficult at times, that is well worth the adventure and an adventure never performed in American cinema.

As the story opens on the screen we watch a desert-like landscape that seems uninhabitable, and yet, there is such beauty and serenity in the dunes being formed as the wind pounds on them mercilessly. As the camera rests on some dunes in the distance, we watch as a convoy of people and donkeys are moving slowly in the sand. Whatever possessed Vasco De Sa to buy this land, seems to be incomprehensible; that he tries to make a living out of civilization among the shifting sand is just folly!Little by little we get to know a bit more about Vasco, his wife, Aurea, her mother Maria, as the men he has brought to help him leave them after experiencing the harsh elements in such an arid place. Things aren't made any better when a group of blacks come to see Vasco, who thinks they are going to rob him. He appeases them by giving them some of the things he has brought to this remote place, and we also learn about an island nearby where these former slaves have settled.After Vasco's tragic death, Dona Maria and Aurea, who is pregnant, are left to deal with the elements. After ten years have passed and Aurea has given birth to her daughter, Maria, she goes exploring and discovers a camp where foreign scientists are making astronomy studies. After a night with Luiz, she goes back for her mother and daughter, but finds her house in ruins after the shifting sand has crushed part of it. Only the young Maria survives.The kind Massu, on of the black men from the island, has loved Aurea from afar. Fate and circumstances bring them together by a bond that goes beyond all reason. After years have passed, Maria, who is now a grown woman discovers Luiz, who has returned to the area, not knowing what role he had played in her mother and her lives. Aurea tells her daughter to go with Luiz back to civilization, but Aurea has no desire to see a world she can't comprehend anymore.This exquisitely told story by director Andrucha Waddington is one of the most beautiful films that have come from Brazil in quite a while. The screen play by the excellent Elena Soarez, whose work one has admired as well, collaborates with Mr. Waddington once more in this strange, but highly moving picture about isolation, loyalty and folly. The wonderful cinematography by Ricardo Della Rosa makes everything one sees even better, if that's possible. The magnificent desert location and even the eclipse his camera captures fills one's senses like no other film in recent memory. Joao Barone and Carlo Bertolini's music score is another element that works with all we are watching.Of course, the film belongs to the two magnificent actresses at the center of the story. Fernanda Montenegro and her real life daughter, Fernanda Torres, make a great contribution to create these women of the desert. Fernanda Montenegro is seen as three different versions of the older women in the story and Fernanda Torres plays the young Aurea and the grown up Maria, the girl that was born in that remote area. Ruy Guerra, himself a distinguished director, plays Vasco with conviction. Seu Jorge, Stenio Garcia and the rest of the cast contribute to make this film work.It's curious to note some negative comments mainly from postings by Brazilian contributors to IMDb. The film, which was received with bad reviews, in general, from the media in that country, deserved much better. It's also curious that viewers from other areas get a different message and pleasure after viewing this film.