House of Sand and Fog
...il for the past six months, and she does not know she owes this tax, so she does not pay it. The government then repossesses her house and evicts her, so she spends her nights wandering from motel to motel, trying to find money to pay her lawyer, because she desperately wants her house back. Mr. Behrani (Ben Kingsley) is an Iranian refugee. He used to be a very wealthy colonel in the Iranian army, but when radicals led a coup against the government, he was forced to flee to America with his wife and two children. Once in America, Behrani cannot find suitable work, so he spends his time split between two jobs; he digs ditches in the mornings and works at a convenience store during the night. The whole time, he maintains an image of opulence in his home and around his family, out of shame. Consequently, he keeps driving his family further and further into debt, though they do not know it. Mr. Behrani sees an advertisement in a newspaper about a house that has been repossessed and is being auctioned off, so he goes to the auction, and because no one else is interested, is able to purchase it for only $40,000. After having a widow’s walk added, he hopes to resell the house for profit, appraised at $175,000. Cathy confronts Mr. Behrani, hoping to get her house back, and he refuses to sell it to her. Cathy does not unde...