House of Sand

This is an intriguing home movie of sorts from Andrucha Waddington, the Brazilian director previously known for Me You Them. It stars his wife, Fernanda Torres, and his mother-in-law, Fernanda Montenegro, leapfrogging roles as mother and daughter through a story that spans sixty years. The setting is a remote desert region of Northern Brazil, near the ocean, and the women are first dragged there in 1910 by a crazed patriarch who has come by a deed to an isolated patch of sand. They spend decades longing for escape, but never really do, as the sands of time seep through and bury their house and their lives. The widescreen cinematography is spectacular, and if the story is sketchy, the actresses fill the screen admirably. It’s Woman of the Dunes with a samba beat, not adding up to much but lovely to look at and memorably scenic and sensuous. (2005, dvd, n.) *6+* (MC-70.)