House of Sand and Fog

2003 • 2h 6m •

Drama

MOVIEVIBE Rating

★ 7.1/10

876 reviews

Your Rating

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."

Top Billed 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

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic

2026-07-24

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 the...