SUBMITTED BY Timbo

February 3, 2004 — The New York Times interviews Sir Ben Kingsley, just nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as an Iranian immigrant who was a colonel in the Shah's Iran.

"I read Behrani as an archetype," he continued, "as a character in dramatic terms who would stand shoulder to shoulder with King Lear in terms of what he says to the audience, in suffering and failure.

"When I look at him, digging the earth, selling gas and Snickers bars with the 'Massoud' on his uniform where his medals used to be, there is a complete distance between who he was, how he sees himself, and how he must reinvent himself," Sir Ben said.

In the film, based on the book by Andre Dubus III, Behrani clings to the shreds of his past glory. He works at a menial job building highways but carefully changes into a suit at a hotel before returning home. He saves every penny, logging each tiny purchase in a book as he works at a second job at a gas station. Behrani is a reflection of immigrants laboring to build the American dream in a land of minimum-wage opportunity.

With few words Sir Ben embodies the fallen dignity of this former air force colonel. With his stiff, military bearing, his harsh machismo toward his wife (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, also nominated for an Oscar), his insistent teaching to his son, Sir Ben conveys the man's desperation to salvage what he can of the family honor.

But there is a price, because "Sand and Fog" is a tragedy. Behrani's dreams directly counter those of Kathy Nicolo, played by Jennifer Connelly, a young American struggling to hold onto her house, mistakenly auctioned by the state. Both Behrani and Kathy feel they deserve the house -- they believe they need it to survive -- and the story spirals with a Shakespearean inevitability toward doom. Perhaps because of the dark theme, the movie has done poorly at the box office, so far taking in only $11 million.

Read the rest at the link below (free registration required).