Vadim Perelman Movies and Career Information

Vadim Perelman (Ukrainian: Вадим Перельман; born 1963) is a Ukrainian-American film director. Perelman made his feature film directorial debut in 2003 with House of Sand and Fog, following a successful career as a commercial director. The film, nominated for three Academy Awards, also marks his first screenplay credit. Perelman was drawn to the story, having been shaped by his own immigrant experience. Born in Kiev, then part of the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (now in Ukraine), Perelman was an only child who lived with his extended Jewish family in a communal flat. When he was only nine years old, his father was killed in a car accident. Five years later, Perelman and his mother were granted permission to leave Kiev and arrived in Western Europe. They lived in Vienna for two months then moved to Rome, where they lived in extreme poverty. Remembering that period, Perelman likens himself to the kids in Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados — a street urchin "always searching for a hunk of bread or a scam to pull." He supported himself and his young mother in this fashion for a year. When a Canadian visa finally came, they left for that country where Perelman would ultimately build a new