Amreeka

What happens when your life is turned upside down by your husband divorcing you for a slimmer, younger woman and walls are built around where you live adding hours every day to your commute to work and you spend every penny to keep your son in a private school? You take the first best opportunity that comes along to get out of that situation. Muna, a Palestinian single woman, does just that when she receives an offer to relocate free to America. This begins the adventures and misadventures of someone immigrating to America with the hopes and promises of a better life. She lands in a small town in Illinois to live (temporarily is the plan) with her sister and physician husband and teenage children until she can establish herself and son. She has two degrees and has had professional experience in the work world so it shouldn't take long - wrong! Told with humor as well as heartbreak (it's just after 9/11and anyone from the Middle East is the enemy), this National Geographic film is a reminder of why people still come to AMREEKA and how easy it is to be misunderstood and to struggle to make a living no matter how hard you are willing to work. It is worth watching by families whose children may be finding it difficult to accept those who don't talk or dress or act just like us. Changing schools as an American teenager can be very difficult. Try coming from another country, especially one we see as an adversary. Highly recommend.

"Amreeka" has, I would say, all the freshness and the weaknesses an indie movie comes with. Being about a family of Palestinian immigrants struggling to find their way in America and facing all kind of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stereotypes, this movie cannot escape its own stereotypes. It is a movie that looks schematic in many of its moments. Not in all moments, let's be clear on this point. It is a movie breathing of sincerity and it has a certain pathos. However, sometimes it seems that it gathers all the bad guys on one side and the good guys on the other (you can guess who are the bad guys, and who are the good ones). And after all these, the end seems idyllic; they want to send the good message so to speak, only I'm wandering whether it happens like that also in real life.

Well, one can say that this movie is dealing with a reality which is by itself schematic. This is true: bigotry of any kind is always schematic (to name the least of its sins). The problem is that a movie has an artistic reality of its own, and this artistic reality must be convincing, regardless how schematic the depicted reality could be.

The great asset of this movie is the lead actress, Nisreen Faour. She creates an unforgettable personage, with passion, with honesty, with conviction and stamina. And she is so amazing that the whole movie is contaminated by her enthusiasm and good will.

Let me mention here also Hiam Abbass , a very good actress that I have also seen in many other movies (The Visitor, Munich, Paradise Now, The Syrian Bride).

This is a great film about immigrating to North America as a divorced mother. The interactions between Mona (the mother) and Fadi (the son) are memorable; whether it be at the border at the occupied territories, in the US regarding his rebelliousness in school or confronting the attitude of US rural society.

I just viewed this film and disagree that it is a stereotype. Maybe the reviewers have not taken a good look at "real life" in North America as a newly arrived immigrant.

In this case, they are from occupied Palestine and immigrate exactly when the Bush administration declares war on Iraq. The town shuns them. No one is Iraqi, Palestine is occupied and war is on the way; so the son convinces her to leave when she receives unexpected news.

A twist and tease every step of the way and the end is most unexpected!

In the heartfelt indy film, AMREEKA, one of the truly standout acting finds, is the beautifully performed role of Muna, played by Nisreen Faour - a divorced Palestinian woman, with a teenage son, Fadi (played by Melkar Muallem), who decides to leave their home country, and travel to America (actually, it was filmed in Canada).

Muna has several degrees, but, due them not being accepted, she must work at a White Castle.

Her son's quiet, and, as is often the case - but worse - is picked on, as the 'new kid,' but, being Arab, at this time, the whole conflict between westerners and the Arab countries comes into play - with Fadi being use as the totem, for the 'terrorist' as well as the 'cause' another classmate's brother (a soldier) went into the military.

All through this hard, and difficult time of transition, Muna has an optimism, and chutzpa, and, a warmth, that had me wishing she was my mom.

I wasn't planning to watch AMREEKA, but, after seeing the first few minutes, I became so engrossed in this determined woman to MAKE things work out for her, and her son, I watched it through. And, am happy I did.

You will be too.

Knowing my deep interest in the subject of Palestine, a friend tipped me off to this movie. "Have you seen the trailer yet?" she asked. "It looks hilarious and beautiful, and poignant".

She wasn't wrong.

Over the last ten or twelve years, I have been gleaning as much information and experience as I can about the Palestine/Israel question. I found this film to be an excellent, genuine portrayal of not only life in occupied Palestine, but also of what life is like for those who choose to emigrate. It isn't a high-budget, high-production value film, but it is sensitively written, superbly acted, and the characters stay with you long after you leave the theater.

Not only that, but it is so heartening to be able to see a movie about Arabs that portrays them simply as people instead of terrorists, and is honest about the kind of racism they face in this country on a regular basis. Lets see more of these kinds of films, please! Mabrook to all those who worked on this gorgeous film!