Rating: 5/5
Criterion Challenge 2023 | 52/52 | Any Criterion film on your watchlist
A man makes his way up a steep dune, using a walking stick to help maintain balance. The sand is untouched beyond his footprints.
Curious, tense music follows him through the void of sand. The wind blows over the surface, creating phantom curls of sand. However calm his demeanor and actions, the music hints at some unknown danger.
He photographs a caterpillar and then puts it in a jar. A dragonfly. A sand cricket. He is a schoolteacher who collects bugs, specifically sand bugs.
He lay in the sand, dreaming — the specter of a woman’s face cast against a dune. Then, a woman traversing the sand. A memory of a lover’s quarrel.
The man missed the last bus leaving the remote village. So, the villagers invite him to stay the night with them.
The village appears buried in sand, but the houses sit in deep pits to avoid harsh winds and erosion.
He meets a widow who offers him a place and food. She asks him to stay beyond the night and help her.
He packs to leave, but the rope ladder is gone. He tries to scale the walls, but they break apart under his hands. The sand shifts beneath his feet as he tries to climb the steep dune. Every motion grants him only inches, lost in the next reach.
The ground shakes, and the walls crumble. The sand will bury the widow’s house if she doesn’t tend to it. It has happened to surrounding homes. It has trapped both of them, but she doesn’t perceive it like that.
— Doesn't this all seem pointless to you? Are you shoveling sand to live or living to shovel sand? […] How can you stand being trapped like this? — This is my home. […] Isn't it exhausting walking around aimlessly? If it weren't for the sand, no one would bother about me.
The longer he fights, the more work they must do to preserve the place. Sand becomes an ocean, the hut an island.
The film shows their battle against the sand and each other, shifting between passion and aggression.
The sand has a dark magic to it. Moisture travels within the dry terrain. Wood rots, and clothing decomposes.
The film does an excellent job of creating the sense of being trapped. The space becomes a surreal zone of images. Granules of sand embedded on sweaty skin. Sometimes, the viewer cannot tell what part of the body it is, so the body becomes an abstract sculpture. She wears a shirt resembling sand in the wind, echoing the surrounding landscape.
Even if it's a lie, it helps to have hope. That tomorrow it will be different.