Araújo's debut feature crystallizes the raw materials of his native Sertão (Brazil's drought-ridden northeast) into a riveting allegory. Maria and Antero are ancient peasants whose paths cross in the white-hot center of events beyond their control. Injustice, prophecies, suffering, visions, and struggle: such is the eternal disequilibrium of the Sertão. In the film's mythic present, the heroic pair manage to evade the nefarious "Dragon" and reach the promised land (but only if the audience believes in magic). Araújo combines unflinching camerawork and mesmerizing aural tonalities into an hallucinatory experience. Part religious allegory, part political history, part autobiography, Landscapes of Memory brings a romantic originality to contemporary cinematic depictions of Brazil.-B Ruby Rich, Sundance