house of sand and fog (2003)

two people are forced to take extreme measures to claim a home. although it is only a small bungalow in the northern part of california, for kathy lazaro it represents the last piece of hope to hold onto to rebuild a life almost destroyed by drug addiction. when a bureaucratic error forces her to be evicted, kathy finds herself suddenly homeless and without any possibility of blocking the sale of the house for a fraction of her real value. the new owner, massoud amir behrani, sees the house as the realization of the american dream that he has always pursued since he left iran with his family many years before. a former colonel of the iranian air force, behrani has reduced himself to performing humble tasks to support the fiction of an apparent well-being and now decides to invest the last savings of his life in the purchase of the house that, finally, will bring his family back to enjoy the prosperity of the past. as the struggle between kathy and behrani for the possession of the house becomes more and more tight, the woman finds an unlikely ally in the official sent to evict her, the deputy lester burdon, who becomes dangerously devoted to his cause.