Outside the office, Lester begins to manhandle Massoud and Esmail seizes Lester's gun and aims it at him.

Lester takes Massoud to the county office to finalize the transaction. Massoud offers to sell the house and will give Kathy the money in exchange for her putting the house in his name. In a xenophobic rage, Lester locks the Behranis in their own bathroom, refusing to let them out until Massoud agrees to relinquish the house. As she and her husband carry Kathy to the bedroom, Lester breaks in and sees Kathy unconscious. Kathy tries to kill herself again with pills, but Nadereh saves her. Massoud finds Kathy drunkenly unable to discharge the gun, and brings her inside. Kathy calls her brother Frank for help, but cannot bring herself to admit that she is homeless.ĭespondent, Kathy becomes drunk and attempts suicide in the driveway with Lester's sidearm.

Aware that Lester was acting on Kathy's behalf, Massoud reports this to Internal Affairs, who severely reprimand Lester, and furiously warns Kathy to leave his family alone. Under a pseudonym, Lester threatens to have Massoud and his family deported if he refuses to sell the house back to the county. Desperate for help, Kathy falls easily into an affair with Lester, who abandons his wife and children and fashions himself as Kathy's protector. Kathy tries to convince Massoud to sell back the house he too advises her to sue the county and promises to sell her the house back if she comes up with the money, but she retaliates by beginning to harass him and his family in front of potential buyers. Connie advises Kathy that her only option is now to sue the county, though it will take months. Massoud, having already spent money on improving the house, is unwilling to accept anything less than the higher value of the property, which the county refuses to pay. Seeing the renovations and how the Behranis have settled in makes her determined to get her house back and she finds an attorney, Connie Walsh, who assures her that because of the county's mistake, they will return Massoud's money and restore the house to her. With nowhere else to go, she spends the night in her car. Kathy is evicted from the motel she is staying in. He buys Kathy's house for a quarter of its actual value, intending to improve and sell it. Living beyond his means, he maintains the façade of a respectable businessman so as not to shame his wife Nadereh, son Esmail, and daughter Soraya. Telling Kathy that her home is to be auctioned off, Lester feels sympathy for her, helps her move out, and advises her to seek legal assistance to regain her house.įormer Imperial Iranian Army colonel Massoud Behrani, who fled his homeland with his family, now lives in the Bay Area working multiple menial jobs. Assuming the misunderstanding was cleared up, she is surprised when Sheriff's Deputy Lester Burdon arrives to forcibly evict her. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actor ( Ben Kingsley), Best Supporting Actress ( Shohreh Aghdashloo), and Best Original Score (James Horner).Ībandoned by her husband, recovering drug addict Kathy Nicolo, living alone in a small house near the San Francisco Bay Area, ignores eviction notices erroneously sent to her for nonpayment of business taxes. The story concerns the battle between a young woman and an immigrant Iranian family over the ownership of a house in Northern California, which ultimately leads to the destruction of five lives. It is based on the novel of the same name by Andre Dubus III. House of Sand and Fog is a 2003 drama film directed by Vadim Perelman, with a screenplay written by Perelman and Shawn Lawrence Otto.

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