The House of Sand and Fog

The House of Sand and Fog

Contrary to my view on Van Helsing, this movie portrayed the contradictions of human nature perfectly. The characters past lives influenced the action and the audience without detracting from the story or adding weary minutes to the length. In fact, the past so influences the present that its shadowy outlines are both the beginning and the end of the sad tale. (And as Ebert pointed out, this movie is a story, as opposed to a plot, because it just shows what happens to the characters instead of directing the action.)

Be warned, though, the ending is not a happy one.

The house in question, owned and lost by first a young woman and then an elderly colonel who share the sad situation of "keeping up appearances", isn't really a great house, but what it stands for is important. They both need the house in order to remember the past, and hopefully build a better future. Unfortunately, any house built on sand is sure to fall, and any house built in the fog is sure to hide the faltering foundation.

The funny thing about this movie is that the characters are so well portrayed with both strengths and weaknesses that there is no feeling of hate or contempt. All have sad stories to tell, all have equal right to fight for the house, all have lives that are sinking and need desperately to be raised by hope of a better tomorrow. The best scene, to my ignorant eye, was when the poor girl, desperate to get her house back, goes to see the colonel's wife. The wife is very motherly, and understands the girl's desperation, yet bursts into tears and sobs, "but we will be deported, and then my masoud will be killed!" The young woman begins to see that she is not the only one in tough circumstances.

I often wonder, "how can they afford that truck?", or "where do they get the money for that?", or more depressingly, "what if I lose my job?" Watching these two people struggle to reshape their lives shed some light on those questions for me. Mr. Brahimi worked two jobs (days on a highway gang, nights at a convenience store) yet insisted on driving his Mercedes and wearing his nice suit. He kept careful track of his finances, and bought a good house on the cheap from the county auction, and he gave his family hope for the future. His wife insisted on living above their means to "keep up appearances", but when forced to move down to the house, she made the best of it, and in fact made it more of a home than the young woman had known. "They've only moved in, and they are more comfortable in it than I ever was." The moral from Mr. Brahimi is, you can survive hard times, and get back to good times, by working hard, and keeping before you a vision of what you want.

Of course, in the end, his vision of the future was shot down by the vascillations of an unstable man, selfish in all his actions.

From the young woman I learned that if you don't stop the depression that often attends unfortunate circumanstances, it only breeds further unfortunate circumanstances until you just want it all to end so that "things will change". That is a horrible state of mind to reach, and no wonder she tries to hard to end her life of misery. And perhaps that too is why Mr. Brahimi does what he does, because his vision of hope has been irreversibly shattered, and he "just wanted things to change". Well, thats enough rambling about lessons from movies. Hopefully I'll be able to watch something a little more upbeat to get me out of this "mental funk" I'm in from watching such a depressing story. (And hopefully I'll be motivated to live life without "keeping up appearances", but living out my vision of hope for the future, and all that attends.)