António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro’s final feature is their most essayistic work, a feature that brings together science, art, metaphysics and magic.

Rosa de Areia draws on a diverse series of texts, from the centuries-old Atharva Veda to Michel de Montaigne and Carl Sagan, to reflect on the human condition from ancient times to the present – as symbolised by the sand-rose, a geological formation whose survival depends on the combined action of water, wind and sand. At the same time, the film is also directly concerned with the physical reality of the Trás-os-Montes region of north-east Portugal. Starting from ‘a practical imagination’, attributed to the people of the region, Reis and Cordeiro work with materials and textures that echo the labours of these rural communities – while also fabulating in collaboration with them.

Rosa de Areia is part of Into Their Labours: The Films of António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, a survey that also includes the two other features in this trilogy: Trás-os-Montes and Ana