|
“Amreeka,” a film written, directed, and produced by
Cherien Dabis. In
English and Arabic.
”Amreeka,” which is Arabic for “America,” is a heartwarming and
often humorous look at family love and support in stressful
circumstances. It concerns a Palestinian woman who emigrates
to the United States with her son around the
time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Without
being heavy-handed, the film touches on prejudice, paranoia, terrorism,
the plight of Palestinians living on the West Bank, 9/11, and the U.S.
attack on Iraq—and it should help foster a public dialogue on those
issues. A few years ago, a film that was so
understanding of the Palestinian cause could not have been made
for general release in the United States. First-time feature
filmmaker Cherien Dabis’s
own Jordanian-Palestinian parents emigrated to
Illinois before she was born.
Divorced,
single mother Muna Farah
(Nisreen Faour) and
her son, Fadi (Melkar
Muallem who is excellent in his film debut),
live in Bethlehem. Muna,
a zoftig woman always on a diet, has
two college degrees, yet works in a bank in Jerusalem, while 16-year-old Fadi goes to a private school nearby. Muna’s nag of an aging mother lives with them.
Driving home in what was once a 15-minute commute is now three hours
because of the newly erected Israeli apartheid wall. Frustrated, Fadi keeps talking about moving to America.
An
approval for a visa arrives in the mail, based on a long-forgotten
application. Concerned about her mother, Muna
is reluctant to leave. But Fadi tells her,
“It’s better to be a stranger in a foreign country than a prisoner in
your own.” Her mind is made up; she notifies her sister in Illinois to expect them.
Mother
and son face hours of intense investigation by airport security agents
in Chicago, who employ a snarling
bomb-sniffing dog. When an officer asks her “occupation,” a smiling Muna, thinking he means the state of her country,
naively answers, “Yes, for over 40 years.” In the background, radios
and televisions broadcast endless updates on the Iraq invasion.
Nisreen Faour’s portrayal of Muna comes almost palpably across the screen. We
feel Muna’s strength, warmth, and endearing
personality, regardless of her disappointments and the homesickness
that her sister tells her will never go away. She is turned down for
jobs in white-collar offices. On one interview, her potential employer
jokingly asks, “You’re not going to bomb us, are you?”
Relegated
to serving burgers at a White Castle in a strip mall, and
feeling humiliated, she lies to her family, telling them she works in a
nearby bank. Her ruse is uncovered when she has an accident at work. A
sign outside the White Castle bears a few missing
letters, lending the film an ironic touch. It reads: “SUPPORT OUR . . .
OOPS!”
Fadi suffers discrimination at school although his
cousin Salma (Alia Shawkat) tries to defend him. The discussion on his
first day of class is about the U.S. attack on Iraq. The boys hurl racial slurs
at Fadi while the girls giggle and the
teacher tries to maintain order.
Unfortunately,
while “Amreeka” hits a broad range of the
problems befalling the Palestinian immigrants, it fails to explore
these issues as profoundly and sensitively as it might have.
Some
characters appear as virtual stereotypes. Ultimately, this
well-intentioned film loses fire as it spirals down to a super-sweet kumbaya finale, with Muna’s
family dancing in a restaurant with a new Jewish Polish-American friend.
|