THE HOUSE BUILT ON SAND (DOM NA PESKE) Eastern European Cinema

Russia in the 1930s serves as the setting for this memorable drama of two women from disparate social backgrounds united in a strange, tumultuous, and ultimately destructive friendship. There is a Chekhov-like intimacy to Adomenaite’s characters, a feeling of people being trapped together. They keep gravitating to a house in the country where they create their own kind of emotional prison, reminiscent of Bunuel’s characters in Angel of Death. Adomenaite brings an intriguing insider’s point of view to her work, providing a peep-hole into Russia. As with Jane Campion in The Piano, Adomenaite offers a uniquely feminine point of view, of hearing and seeing things-which is tougher and more demanding than the cozy male-dominated cinema of Hollywood.-Terry Gilliam