DreamWorks Pictures
Not part of a collection.
House of Sand and Fog
Some dreams can't be shared.
Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.
- Original title
- House of Sand and Fog
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- $16,500,000
- Revenue
- $16,942,795
CinemaSerf
Jul 24, 2026 · via TMDB
Having been left by her husband, "Kathy" (Jennifer Connelly) awakens one morning to find the bailiffs at the door. She hasn't paid her business taxes and so her home - built by her late father - is to be sold from under her. Next thing, she is living in a motel and what was her house has been bought by "Behrani" (Sir Ben Kingsley). We can tell from the photos around his home that he was once an influential member of the Iranian military under the Shah, and fled his home after the 1979 revolution with his wife "Nadi" (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Now, they have a son and have burned through most of their savings living in the United States. With barely $50,000 left, he spots the opportunity to buy this bungalow at auction and quickly flip it for a more reasonable price so that they can pay for their teenage son "Esmail" (Jonathan Ahdout) to go to university. She, meantime, has engaged the services of a lawyer to contest this process but with "Behrani" already trying to sell the place her options become limited. Meantime, whilst she struggles with the pressures of homelessness, she hits it off with married police officer "Lester" (Ron Eldard) who was one of those who evicted her in the first place, but who proves to be a kindly soul and tries to help her. As he feels more and more sympathy, their relationship becomes much more personal and he decides to intervene in her domestic troubles. That intervention quickly spirals out of control and swiftly creates a perilous scenario for all concerned. The story itself doesn't always add up here, and there are a few plot holes that did annoy me a little, but once we have the thrust of the plot established it becomes a far more considered character study of three people, really. "Kathy" clearly has issues around her relationship with her father; her failed marriage and her own demons and there is something impressively visceral about Connelly's performance of a woman for whom conflict was never far away. "Behrani" is a man with a troubled past, but he is also one not to be pushed around when it comes to protecting that which he loves most - his family; and on that front Sir Ben is at his delicate best. Hiding behind a veneer of accommodating respectability is a man who has done nothing wrong and whose sympathy for "Kathy" is stopping well short of the self-sacrifice she requires - and he delivers that role with little dialogue but quite a lot of presence. The scene stealer for me, though, was Aghdashloo as his wife. With only a little English, she sensitively portrays a woman who is terrified that any boat-rocking by her husband could see them deported back to country where only a wall and some bullets awaited them. She has sympathy for "Kathy", but has only very limited sway with a loving husband who is used to be being obeyed. As the story unfolds it does take one or two desparate turns that do beggar belief a little - especially as "Lester" always manages to make a bad situation worse, but by the end what we have here is a critique on clashes and comparison of culture and communication and it's not that straightforward for us to take sides - even if we wanted to.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Jennifer Connelly
Kathy
Ben Kingsley
Behrani
Ron Eldard
Lester
Frances Fisher
Connie Walsh
Kim Dickens
Carol Burdon
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Nadi
Jonathan Ahdout
Esmail
Navi Rawat
Soraya
Kia Jam
Ali
Carlos Gómez
Lt. Alvarez
Namrata Singh Gujral
Wedding Guest
Nasser Faris
Wedding Guest
Marco Rodríguez
Mendez
Al Rodrigo
Torez
Aki Aleong
Tran
Scott N. Stevens
County Official
Ken Kerman
Locksmith
Scott Kinworthy
Deputy Trainee
Spencer Garrett
Auctioneer
Cooper Thornton
Gary
Bonita Friedericy
Motel Manager
David Carrera
Carpenter
Michael Papajohn
Carpenter
Joe Howard
Appraiser
Aaron Frazier
Courier
Ashley Edner
Bethany
Ray Abruzzo
Frank
Tom Reynolds
Gas Station Worker
Pamela Shaddock
Nurse
Frank Gallegos
Prison Guard
Karl Makinen
Officer at End
Zoran Radanovich
Sergei
Markus Baldwin
Young Husband
Dennison Samaroo
Doctor
Jose Vasquez
Arresting Officer
Gene Serdena
Set Decoration
Roger Deakins
Director of Photography
Diana R. Lupo
Stunt Double
Chris O'Hara
Stunts
Sonny Tipton
Stunts
Vadim Perelman
Director
Deborah Aquila
Casting
Tricia Wood
Casting
Michael London
Producer
Vadim Perelman
Producer
James Horner
Original Music Composer
Greg P. Russell
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Skip Lievsay
Supervising Sound Editor
Vadim Perelman
Screenplay
mondano
A Letter for Amelia
The Hanged Man
The Third Clef
Chernobyl
Porta Fechada
Once a Moth
And the Children Shall Lead
American History X
Given
The Elephant Man
Million Dollar Baby
Raise the Red Lantern
Nayakan
The Pursuit of Happyness
Dancer in the Dark
He Who Gets Slapped
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
The Strategy of the Snail
The Conversation
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
Night and Fog
We Shall Overcome
Greed
Hamlet
Lolita
West Side Story
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
Milk
Bread and Chocolate
I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar
Melancholia
The China Syndrome
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
The Penalty
Breathe
Saeed
The Men
The Class
The Sweet Hereafter
Last Tango in Paris
Lorna's Silence
A Love Song for Bobby Long
The Deer King
Happy Journey
Games of Love and Chance
Romper Stomper
Helen
Tales
The House on Telegraph Hill
The Beaver
Mockingbird Don't Sing
14 Kilometers
Hammett
God Willing
To Love, Honor and Deceive
The Quiet
The Jazz Singer
The Crossing Guard
Queen of Earth
No and Me
Greenberg
All the King's Men
Metro
Emanuelle Around the World
Jade
Hungry Hearts
I Miss You When I See You
Made in YU
L'afrance
Nothing Good Ever Happens
The Passion of Ayn Rand
Human Zoo
Flor de Luto
November
Prey for Rock & Roll
Manoos
Life Isn't Beautiful
Metropole
Foxes of Chironup
The Cold Tears
Please, Not Yet
On the Edge of Transcendence
Peanuts
Con El Sudor De Tu Frente
A Guest in My Country
Medios Días
Love You Forever
A Heart On The Mend
Break the Cycle
Impression
Goodnight and Goodbye
The Return of Beyonce
Ragged Heart
A Walk Down to Water
Stranger
Tejo Mar
I Think It's Raining
Requiem for a Dream
Boyz n the Hood
The Game
Beautiful Boy
Menace II Society
Escape from Alcatraz
Ordinary People
Life as a House
The Lost Bus
The Towering Inferno
The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Embattled
The Enforcer
A Dry White Season
Not Without Hope
Spider
The Good Neighbor
Nowhere to Run
Mammal
Pacific Heights
Rogue Agent
The Poker House
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Wakefield
Night Always Comes
The Brave
End of the Road
The Glass House
The Truth About Emanuel
Straw Dogs
Dec 19, 2003
