DREAMWORKS
Kathy Nicolo, played by Jennifer Connelly, left, and Massoud Amir Behrani, played by Ben Kingsley, are caught in a desperate struggle for ownership of a house that both see as their last hope in "House of Sand and Fog."
Bleak house wars
A stark tale of competing
American dreams resonates
with a foreign-born director
IT may seem odd that a foreign-born director picks as his first motion picture a story about the quintessential American dream of owning your own home.
But the story of "House of Sand and Fog," starring Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly, and opening Dec. 26 (screening Dec. 22 during the Maui FirstLight Film Festival), can be compared to Vadim Perelman's life.
"It's about loneliness and of being cast out ... about being an immigrant in a new country," Perelman said in a telephone interview from New York City. "After I read this book, I knew I needed to tell this story."
When Perelman was in his teens, he and his mother left their home in the former Soviet Union. They lived hand-to-mouth in Vienna and Rome, before settling in Canada to build a new life.
Perelman eventually cultivated a successful career in America as a commercial director, but those formative years gave him a keen understanding of Col. Behrani's pursuit of the American dream and Kathy Nicolo's despair at having lost it.
The film is based on the bestseller by Andre Dubus III. Massoud Amir Behrani (Kingsley) is living a lie to fulfill a dream. Once a member of the Shah of Iran's elite inner circle, he has brought his family to America to build a new life.
Despite a pretense of continued affluence, he is barely making ends meet until he sees his opportunity in the auction of a house being sold for back taxes.
But through a bureaucratic snafu, the house had been improperly seized from its owner, Kathy Nicolo (Connelly). The loss of her home dashes Kathy's last hope of a stable life -- one that had been nearly destroyed by addiction -- and she decides to fight to recover her home at any cost.
DREAMWORKS
Shoreh Aghdashloo, left, as Nadi, and her son Esmail, played by Jonathan Ahdout, center, try to help an injured Kathy Nicolo, played by Jennifer Connelly, before learning that she is fighting to reclaim ownership of their new home.
Perelman bought the book at the Rome airport, and read it as he crossed the Atlantic. By the time he landed, he knew his career had been set on a different course.
"It had themes that are primal and universal," he said.
First he contacted the author to get the film rights, competing with more than 100 producers.
"I asked Andre to trust me," Perelman said. "I explained my life story and how I connected to this book, but more importantly, that I had nothing to lose."
Every other director or producer who wanted the film rights had major careers.
"I knew they would say they loved the book, then want to change part of it, maybe make it a thriller," Perelman said. "I loved it just the way it is. I said, 'Andre, I will fight to the death to keep the story true. I don't owe anything to anybody.'"
He got the film rights for $25,000. But Perelman knew the book by itself would not get studio backing.
"The story is so bleak," he said. "I pitched it a couple times and I could see their eyes glazing over."
So Perelman wrote the screenplay, and with that, persuaded Kingsley and Connelly to climb on board. DreamWorks Pictures then won the bidding rights among six studios.
Perelman agrees without prompting that the house in the story is a sort of metaphor for the project.
"It's incredibly similar to my story," he said. "At one point when I still didn't have a contract for the film rights, Oprah (Winfrey) picked up the book for her book club," he said. "Andre's representatives (without the author's knowledge) tried to renege on our contract. They smelled money and I almost lost my house. I felt just like Behrani ..."
DREAMWORKS
Once a decorated colonel in the Iranian Air Force, Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley, center) must now work several jobs to provide a good life for his family in America in "House of Sand and Fog."
A major challenge was to translate from the book the viewer's allegiance to both main characters.
"That is constantly sewn throughout the book," he said. "Your sympathies swap back and forth from one character to the other. I wanted people to root for Kathy and Behrani equally. They are both flawed ... but they both want something ... They don't understand each other, though, and that is what will ultimately destroy them."
Perelman says the transplanted Iranian colonel may be "more American than any American.
"He's doing what he is supposed to do in pursuing his dream and caring for his family," the director says. "Getting that house through foreclosure was such a great deal and he knew he would never have that chance again."
Connelly's character comes across as weak and passive. Perelman praises the actor for "playing it straight" and not trying to solicit audience sympathy.
"Jennifer chose not to suck up to the audience like a lot of stars would," he says.
Ultimately, some of the violence in the book did not make it onto screen.
"It was such a rampage in the middle of a sequence that should be all about grief," he said. "I didn't want to displace the grief."
Perelman hopes audiences leave with an understanding of people who are different, and be more forgiving.
"I hope they are moved enough to go home and hug their children," he said. "The whole point of theatrical tragedy is that we live through it vicariously through the actors and I'm asking the audience to live through their own tragedies gracefully."
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