The plot seems simple enough - almost too simple: two people fighting over the ownership of one house, each trying to find a place to call home.
Turns out that nothing about The House of Sand and Fog is simple. In fact, the way the author of the book and the director of the film met and the way the plot and the film were conceived could be the subject of their own story.
However, due to lack of time and space, a well-written synopsis of the fairy tale story will have to do.
It all started in 1999...
Andre Dubis III was a writer on the verge of getting a big break. Not just any big break - but the Mac Daddy of all big breaks. Somewhere in Chicago, Oprah Winfrey was about to pick up, read and fall in love with Dubis' new book, House of Sand and Fog; thus changing the course of Dubis' life for years to come.
Oprah inducted Dubis' book into her book club, instantly skyrocketing it to the top of bestseller lists everywhere.
"Oprah has done a wonderful service," Dubis says of the honor. "It is a frickin' fantasy come true.
"Instead of selling 10,000 copies you sell a million," he says. "Three million."
Sure enough, people Dubis didn't even know existed began coming out of the woodwork, pleading for a chance to put the famed book on the big screen.
After rejecting hundreds of begging hopefuls, Dubis got one offer he couldn't refuse from someone nobody expected.
Somewhere in Rome: Well-known commercial director Vadim Perelman was filming a snowboarding scene for a Coors commercial. He finds himself at the airport, ready to head back to the United States when he stops by the bookstore to grab a quick read for the flight, which he says, he usually does.
This time, he chooses Dubis' House of Sand and Fog, which he reads cover to cover as he flies over the Atlantic on a 10-hour flight.
"I'm weeping on the plane because this is so much of my life," Perelman says, sitting on the couch of Camelback Mountain's fancy-pants Sanctuary Resort.
Perelman related so closely to the book because he knew what it felt like to feel out of place as an immigrant, much like the main character in the book - a well-respected Iranian who migrated to the United States - did.
After leaving the Soviet Union as a child, Perelman and his mother moved as immigrants to Rome, Vienna and eventually Canada.
"No studio will take this [and stay true to the plot]," Perelman says. "An Iranian colonel with a real estate problem? That's not a fucking movie, so I decided I'd make it myself."
As soon as he finished the book and reached solid ground, Perelman phoned Dubis with his proposal.
"They will take your baby, chain it to the radiator, rape and kill it," Perelman said to Dubis over the phone. "I'll die fighting for it."
That's when Dubis knew he had found his director. But Perelman was about to take on a giant task. He had never directed a film before; his resume consisted entirely of commercials.
"It's kind of a soulless business [commercials]," Perelman says, "Just selling shit all of the time. But this film will forever have my name on it."
The two managed to land some big names as leads in their collaboration: Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) takes on the roll of Kathy Nicolo, a recovering drug addict whose boyfriend leaves her lonely and depressed. Ben Kingsly (Ghandi) plays Massoud Amir Behrani, a once-influential man in Iran who immigrates to the United States only to work jobs as a construction worker and a convenience store clerk, all the while maintaining the façade of a wealthy man.
The two seemingly different characters cross paths when Nicolo's house mistakenly gets repossessed when it appears that she has past business taxes she hasn't paid.
Before she has a chance to fix the error, the house is auctioned off to Behrani and his family, who move in immediately.
As the two struggle to obtain the home and the "appearance" of living normal lives, the plot twists and turns, ultimately ending in a gut-wrenching finale too shocking to predict.
At different points throughout the film the audience is invited to sympathize with one character while hating the other, only to have emotions flip-flop a scene later.
Dubis says that when he wrote the book, he tried not to judge the characters, but instead, he sought to understand both sides as he was writing.
His lack of bias is extremely evident in the characters' portrayal and their crucial rolls in the film.
The bizarre idea behind the two conflicting characters came from several of Dubis' past experiences.
"I fell in love with a Persian girl in college," he says, laughing.
The girl's father was a colonel, which was something that always stuck with Dubis. Years later, while reading the paper, Dubis came across an article about a woman whose house was auctioned off because of back taxes.
Thinking it would be strange if the Colonel bought the woman's house, Dubis conjured up one hell of a tale.
In the beginning of the film, the simple plot may seem like it's going nowhere fast. Hang in there, though - the ending is sure to redeem the film in its entirety, making jaws drop everywhere.
Reach the reporter at erika.wurst@asu.edu.
