House of Sand and Fog

"Some dreams can't be shared."

2003 2h 6m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

🍅

74%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.1TMDB · 880🍅74%Rotten Tomatoes●71Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 74,992

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some dreams can't be shared.”

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Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Vadim Perelman
Writers: Shawn Lawrence Otto, Vadim Perelman
Languages: English, Italian, Persian
Countries: United States of America, United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 23 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Persian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, United Kingdom.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Vadim Perelman, shot by Roger Deakins. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Lisa Zeno Churgin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley and Ron Eldard carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Some dreams can't be shared.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Vadim Perelman directs. Roger Deakins behind the camera. James Horner scores. Lisa Zeno Churgin cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America, United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, Italian, Persian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 23 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Persian.
3International production across 2 countries: United States of America, United Kingdom.
4Directed by Vadim Perelman, shot by Roger Deakins. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by James Horner. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Lisa Zeno Churgin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley and Ron Eldard carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Some dreams can't be shared.".
9IMDB entry: tt0315983 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Released under 16 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Original score: James Horner
Editing: Lisa Zeno Churgin
Production design: Maia Javan
Costume design: Hala Bahmet
Sound: Greg P. Russell
Stunt coordinator: Scott Sproule
Runtime: 126 min · 2h 6m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $16,500,000
Box office: $16,942,795
Return: 103% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Rotten Tomatoes: 74% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 71/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 74,992 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 3 Oscars. 13 wins & 42 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Vadim Perelman

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-07-24
★ 7/10
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.

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