São Paulo – A Lebanese film has been catching attention among the titles on Netflix. Touted as one of the best on the streaming platform this year, Sand Castle tells the story of an Arab family stranded on a deserted island in the Mediterranean Sea, facing emotional and survival challenges. The film debuted on Netflix on January 24. (This text contains spoilers.)
For those choosing the film unsuspectingly, without prior references, Sand Castle proves to be a surprise. When everything suggests the viewer is watching a production about sinister forces, possibly even from beyond the planet, or some psychological disturbance, the film unveils its big secret and the core of its message—a humanitarian warning. And therein lies the beauty and power of this story.
It all begins with the couple Yasmine and Nabil waiting to be rescued on an island along with their children Jana, a young child, and Adam, a teenager. On the island, there is a lighthouse where the family takes shelter and has basic amenities. It seems they ended up there either because of Nabil’s work as a lighthouse keeper or to distance themselves from something difficult in their previous life. And so, they spend their days, torn between hope for a rescue and the lack of it, between having food and not, and between the horrors of the island’s isolation and the possibility of never returning home.
It’s impossible not to mention the ending because it changes the interpretation of everything that happened before. The child’s shoe found no longer seems like a clue suggesting a murderer on the island or that others have been forgotten there. Similarly, the mother’s entry into the sea is no longer understood as being drawn by a malevolent force.
Sand Castle is about reality—the sad reality of innocent children losing their lives in bombings of schools and homes, in wars that are not their own. It’s about families emotionally shattered by the loss of their children, losses that become shadows clinging to the soul of the daily lives of those left behind. The landscape of scarcity, uncertainty, distrust, and fear on the eerie island reflects the emotional habitat of those who couldn’t protect their children from the worst. The island isn’t even the island.
Arab cast
Palestine’s Ziad Bakri plays the father Nabil, Lebanese actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker Nadine Labaki portrays the mother, Syrian actor Zain Al Rafeea is the teenage son, and Lebanon’s Riman Al Rafeea is the young girl Jana. A Lebanese film directed by Nadine Labaki, Capernaum, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2019. Sand Castle is directed by US filmmaker Matty Brown.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
