Not into a French double feature of dying and obsession? A couple of other choices for tonight’s SIFF schedule:

• Two actresses play three generations of women in House of Sand (Casa de Areia) [siff]. As time passes, the woman swap roles, portraying each other at different points in the story of survival in the striking and desolate Brazilian landscape. It’s not as contrived as it sounds. The daughter and her mother are dragged into the sand dunes by an ambitious older husband hoping to best the frontier. They build a house, the husband dies, and the sand encroaches. Along the way, they get help from Seu Jorge (who doesn’t sing any cover songs), there is a lunar eclipse, and men land on the moon. [4/5]

(tonight at 7, tomorrow at 1:30 at Pacific Place)

• Indie meets carnie in tonight’s presentation of the Unknown [siff]. All that I needed to hear about this event is that the soundtrack would be an original score, performed live by Portastatic (a band that includes members of Superchunk). Learning that the movie is about an armless knife thrower was just the icing on the cake.

(9:00 pm, the Moore)