Review of The House of Sand (2005) by Ross W — 13 Mar 2010

House of Sand is a thoughtful, meditative film of atmospheric brilliance. It tells a compelling historical story, and it benefits from strong performances by its two female leads, Fernanda Torres and Fernanda Montenegro.

First of all, this film does a wonderful job of placing the viewer in the environment of the dessert. With no soundtrack, the viewer is simply exposed to the natural sounds of the dessert: the rustling of sand through the wind. The scenery is vivid, and the shots are pretty beautiful. The integration of environment serves this film extremely well.

I only had a few problems with this film. First of all, it seemed to want to be more intellectual than it really was. The story is very simple. And the fact that these two women are stranded in a land cut off from civilization impedes their advancement of knowledge. There are a few encounters with the modern world, and these present interesting contrasts to the inert intellectual state of the women, but ultimately the story is not complex enough to support major brain exertion.

My other small problem with the film is that it jumps so far forward in time that I feel like the story loses its emotional impact. Instead of witnessing transformations in the characters take place, we are left to imagine them, because one scene cuts and then all of a sudden here we are ten years later in the dessert, just transported like an instantaneous time machine. Some viewers might like the leaps in time, but I personally find them to take away from the overall continuity of the story.

Overall, House of Sand really impressed me. I was affected emotionally, and though I thought there was some holes in the narrative, I really enjoyed the film. It was amazing that this film was so sparse and desolate, yet at the same time so incredibly captivating.