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AMERICAN DREAMERS
house of sand and fog
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OSCAR-WINNERS BEN KINGSLEY AND JENNIFER CONNELLY FACE OFF OVER A RUNDOWN BEACH HOUSE. BUT, DISCOVERS ELEANOR SINGER, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG IS ABOUT A LOT MORE THAN PROPERTY RIGHTS: IT IS A FABLE ABOUT THE STATE OF MODERN AMERICA SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF TWO OUTSIDERS.
| It was one of those projects of which everyone seemed to want to be a part. And, with a December 19 limited release in New York and Los Angeles and a December 26 wide release lined up, DreamWorks are clearly hoping that holiday moviegoers - not to mention Academy voters - will feel the same.
Andre Dubus III’s novel House of Sand and Fog had a dream of a success story as a book - rave reviews, a National Book Award shortlisting, solid sales and, finally, the thing which every writer dreamed of (before she stopped doing it, that is): a selection for Oprah’s Book Club.
“You don’t often read a script that makes you say, ‘I have to produce this movie,’” says Michael London, a former Los Angeles Times journalist whose last production credit was Sundance hit (and Locarno Film Festival winner) Thirteen. “I remember that, by the time I put it down, I felt - like many of the people who ultimately took part in the movie - compelled to raise my hand and say, ‘I need to be involved in this’. Every bone in my body was deeply affected by the story.”
Dubus’ book is about two people on a collision course over a run-down bungalow on the California coast. Kathy (played by Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Connelly) is a recovered addict who has been evicted from the house because of a bureaucratic mix-up. Former Iranian air force Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani (fellow Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley) picks up the property at a repossession sale and sees it as the means of giving back to his family the lifestyle they used to have, but which they have been robbed of by the menial jobs he has had to do since fleeing his native country at the time of the Islamic Revolution.
For each of them, the ‘House of Sand and Fog’ means more than just a place to live: it is a last chance at life, and the conflict between them triggers a shocking conclusion.
“I think what the two central characters are after is something very fundamental: a home - literally a house - and also figuratively a place to live and have a family, which Kathy has lost and Behrani is trying to hold on to,” explains London. “The thing these people are battling over is not cerebral, it’s not abstract, it’s very personal.
“Another thing that I found so rich about the story is that you care about both of these people. There is no easy right and wrong. You believe that Kathy has been unfairly dislodged from her home, but you also become invested in Behrani’s struggle and his desire to give his family a better life. It defies any easy answers, and I believe that is where the ‘page-turner’ aspect of the movie kicks in.”
Given the success of the book and the fierce passions it seems to have aroused, the fact that the director, Vadim Perelman, is a first-timer with previous experience only in commercials and music videos (in which, admittedly, he has been extremely successful) may come as something of a surprise. But Perelman, too, is a relatively recent immigrant (see story on article page 3), with experiences of a menial existence and the fierce need to find some kind of base which is not that different from Behrani’s.
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