Film

A House Built on Water

2002 · 1h 51m · Drama

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

IMDb

6.7

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.

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

Maryam Boubani

Valiyollah Shirandami

Mr. Shiri

Ahmad Yavari Shad

• Bahman FarmanaraDirector · Writer · Producer
• Mahmoud KalariDirector of Photography
• Ahmad PezhmanOriginal Music Composer
• Abbas GanjaviEditor

Release date

April 1, 2002

Status

Released

Original language

Persian

Runtime

1h 51m

Genres

Drama