A House Built on Water

A House Built on Water

The midlife crisis of a successful professional man is put into the perspective of eternity

2002 · 111 min · ★ 7.5 · Drama

Director Bahman Farmanara's second film following a 20-year exile from his native Iran depicts the spiritual crisis of a middle-aged man. In the film's dreamlike opening scene, Dr. Reza Sepidbakht (Reza Kianian), a well-off Tehran gynecologist, thinks he runs over an angel while driving home at night with a call girl. The next morning at the hospital where he works, he is shown a comatose boy who is famous for having memorized the entire Koran. These two events cause him to rethink his cynical outlook on life and his relationships with his elderly father, wayward son, and the women he has mistreated since becoming estranged from his wife. When the boy awakens from his coma, Dr. Sepidbakht begins to look to him for answers.

Directed by Bahman Farmanara · Written by Bahman Farmanara

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Cast

Reza Kianian Dr. Reza Sepidbakht
Hedie Tehrani Jale Tirandaz
Ezzatollah Entezami Dr. Sepidbakht's father
Jamshid Mashayekhi Dr. Latifian
Bita Farrahi Mrs. Taleghani
Behnaz Jafari Mojgan Ahadi
Roya Nownahali Mrs. Mohammadi
Shabnam Toloui Secretary
Hossein Kasbian Jale's father
Mohsen Ghazi Moradi
Mehran Rajabi
Qasem Zare

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