Amreeka
The immigrant experience in America is a topic rich in meaning. For me, it is personal, since my understanding has been informed both by my family's story and my work of several decades.
Because America has a complex and conflicted relationship with immigrants, being both inclusive and generous, while at the same time wary and unwelcoming of newcomers, the experiences of this country's diverse ethnic communities has been the subject of great art. The Irish, Italians, Jewish and Latino experience has long been conveyed in film and literature, defining, for other Americans, not only the story of these communities, but, revealing, as well, aspects of the American character.
Until now, the Arab American experience has been less told and is, therefore, less familiar. That is, until now.
The remarkable film, Amreeka, the first feature length work of a young Palestinian-Jordanian American writer/director, Cherien Dabis, marks not only her debut, but an introduction to the Arab immigrant experience in post 9-11 America.
I don't often review films, but after seeing Amreeka, and interviewing Dabis on my weekly television program "Viewpoint" (airing on Abu Dhabi TV and Link TV in the US), I am compelled to write.
Amreeka tells the story of Muna, a divorced Palestinian woman from Bethlehem. As the film opens, we follow Muna home from work, through oppressive and abusive checkpoints, past the wall and suffocating settlements. Muna is not only tired of all this, she is fearful for the future and safety of her teenage son, Fadi.
News that she has secured an immigrant visa to the US gives Muna the opportunity she has craved for a better life. Their departure from home and family is wrenching, but Muna and Fadi are hopeful as they embark on the voyage that is to begin their new life.
Muna's dreams, however, will not be so easily fulfilled. Her experience with US Immigration and Customs, marked by ignorance and bureaucratic hostility, resembles, in some ways, the treatment at the checkpoints. She weathers all of this and exits the Chicago airport, where she is embraced by her sister's family, who preceded her to America more than a decade earlier.
As luck would have it, Muna has come to the US at the start of the Iraq War. Anti-Arab sentiment is raging in some quarters. Her brother-in-law, a doctor, has lost patients due to backlash, and her sister is quickly losing patience with the hatred and fear that mars their lives.
Though educated and with experience in banking, Muna is unable to find work in her field, but knowing that she must become independent, continues to search for employment, finally finding a job at a local fast food restaurant.
Tensions build as Muna, ashamed, tries to hide her place of work from her son and sister; as Fadi deals with bullying bigots at school; and as her sister's family begins to unravel in response to the pressures of the war, and the enormous hardships resulting from anti-Arab bias. Through it all, Muna not only survives, but remains hopeful and thankful for each kind gesture from strangers and new-found friends who come to her assistance in ways small and not so small.
Dabis handles her characters lovingly, making each one real and engaging--and through them a love story, of sorts, emerges. Like most children of immigrants, Dabis grew up in two worlds, loving both--the life of her family and her heritage, and the life they found in America. These two worlds are estranged, at times, but they define Dabis. And she draws on both to tell her story. Her film is, in a real sense, an effort to reconcile them.
Through Dabis' art, Americans will learn not only about the Palestinian experience under occupation, but will come to see their own country, through Muna's eyes, as a generous land, full of promise, but a land that is flawed as well.
Amreeka is currently showing in over 30 cities and will be opening in 10 more this month. It has been praised by critics, with the New York Times calling it "one of the most accomplished recent films" about the immigrant experience.
Amreeka will soon be opening across the Middle East. I urge you to see it. You will learn and you will love the experience.
That it has been praised by the critics and awarded at festivals, itself, tells a story. My hope is that this wonderful film inspires more young Arab American artists to tell our story--so that through art, our experience will be better known and Americans will see what is to be loved about this country, but what also must change, to make it better.
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This is a great film. I saw it at home, in France, and wondered if it would be distributed in the US because it doesn't embrace prevalent views--like the paranoia of all the people knee-jerk reacting in this blog to the suggestion that there is room for improvement in America. One of the most compelling things about this film is that it is not didactic and doesn't pose things in terms of black and white but in terms of the real world--which is always grey. And another is its universal aspects, and a great store of humor that often saves this family from imploding. Wonderful film, great actors I've never seen before, can't wait to see her next one.
No one says that there isn't room for improvement in America. But a far better use of time would be examining why so many middle eastern societies are so repressive.
why are so many middle eastern societies so repressive? could it have anything to do with western powers installing/suppoprting dictators of their choice, like the shah of iran, to name one. check out "Syriana" or "Lion of the Desert" if you want to see films on western foreign policy in the middle east.
Lovely review Mr. Zogby, I will check it out.
Questions to Gasparilla: 1) what proportion of Arab-Americans are Muslim? 2) Why didn't the Irish go to another Catholic European country en masse? 3) What is your real purpose here?
I know that a large proportion of Arab Americans are Christians. I also know that a large number of Muslims are not Arabic, but most Arabs are Muslim. The Irish came here because they thought there were better opportunities. In case you missed it, that's my point. It's a little hypocritical to have people come here from less open cultures and then hear lectures about how we "must change". Kind of like Muslim communities in Britain demanding Sharia law, which means women are inferior, be given an equal footing with English law. As for my "real purpose", what's yours? What makes you think you can demand answers from me, because I give my opinion on a website? Just because you don't like what I say?
I'm only guessing, but I think Khirad's askance of your motive is that you have (intentionally or not) expressed your opinion on "Muslim communities" with some volitility bordering on beligerence. Maybe you're not aware of the great diversity of Muslim communities or can only hear the voice of the loudest given a media platform (almost like how the face of modern Christianity is shown as the Bush Administration, Abu Gharib, and Gitmo in the Middle East) - but Muslims I know don't identify with either Saudi Arabian policies nor desire it to rule their lives. In fact, most just want access to education for their children (both male and female) and a meritocratic society. Admittedly, most of the Arab Muslims I know are scientists from either Morocco or Algeria (the oddest thing about them is their sense of humour and love of football - i.e. soccer) - and the rest of the Muslims are medical doctors from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (of note - a great proportion of them being female). None fit your profile.
Wonder why she didn't go to other Arab countries that were a lot closer. Because in some of them she would be unable to leave the house by herself to go to work? And as intolerant as this country supposedly is, go and try to hand out a bible in Saudi Arabia or some other Muslim societies. See how far you get.
it is against the law to "hand out bibles" in Saudi Arabia; however Christians are permitted to bring one each into the Kingdom.
Really? It's against the law? I was aware of that. Is that your excuse for it? Suppose the United States made it against the law to hand out the Koran? I think your reaction would be totally opposite.
Saudi Arabia is hardly the ideal model of an Arab country. It gets away with its totalitarian obnoxiousness because of the immense support it receives from the freedom-loving and oil-loving West. Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon are all countries where access to education and job opportunities are open to participation from women - but the availability and stability of growth for either quality of life or employment opportunities has been significantly limited due to the economic situation. America has been selling itself as the "land of opportunity" - a place where if you supposedly work hard your efforts will pay off. This concept is very attractive to people who come from places where all they ask for is a chance to work their butts off - but those openings are few and far between.
Don't pretend like Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country or society where women are oppressed.
Many Muslims believe that Saudi is hardly the ideal Muslim country. Do not judge the book by its cover. Just like the extreme right wing Christians, they hardly the ideal Christians.
Believe it or not, it is actually easier to migrate to the US than to countries like Saudi. In fact, for your information, some Arab countries in the Gulf such as UAE, will allow Americans and Europeans to the country as tourist without visa and not citizens of other Arab countries that are not part of the Gulf Council.
Maybe the AAI should ask the CNN to do a program about Arab- American like they did on Black in America or Latino in America , we need to do a better job in the PR dept . concerning the issue that means the to us ..
I agree, they should do more of those.
Many believe that the movie industry is in the fantasy business. But often the most accurate information we get is from movies. The real fantasy business is often the traditional media.
Yes, America has had a remarkable diversity of immigrants.
The Arab situaution in contemporary America seems to me a complex one. On the one hand, it continues to be the land of opportunity even in these straitened times, but on the other there is the rather tension-laden mix of attitudes to the Middle East.
Here is my experience. I arrived in Philadelphia from India in 1960 at the age of 23 to be a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. I made a fairly diligent first-hand attempt to understand the country I had come to, having seen my share of Hollywood movies in India: a much narrower lens than actually being here. Bettering myself did not rank high on my agenda. The passion to understand the country from the inside continued for about a dozen years, when I went for a year to England, which despite having seeded America, is a very different country. And in the ensuing years I came to be increasingly drawn to England (English literature being my profession), and moved there for some 20 years. England has its strengths (this is not the occasion to speak about them) but as the years passed I missed America's freshness, spontaneity, openness, and energy, returned to it seven years ago, and began seeing it with new eyes. As in the days of the Revolution, America despite its contradictions and blind spots, is (or can be) the Future. The American Vision is deeper than the American Dream.
I can imagine that tis film is of extreme interest to the writer and to other muslims. The experience described, however, of this immigrant, is not much different from the one I have had as a Dutch immigrant. I, too, had banking experience - Department head at two Dutch banks - and I was degreed. I had to do my College over (similar to my high school years, but not as comprehensive). I speak four languages and understand a few more. My degrees are in Business Economics and Quantitative Economics and Mathematics. I have been a working interpreter/translator (four languages). I have a teaching degree and eight endorsements. If I tell people about my experiences they always say you must write a book about it, but write it as fiction, because no one would believe it. I have known about Chinese immigrants with multiple degrees, such as pharmacist/physician, who earned less than a young kid just out of college in a research position. That is what immigration entails. My father, a hungarian coming to The Netherlands, had identical problems. If Amreeka had been a Christian Palestinian from Beth Lechem her story would have been even more compelling.
It is true that the immigrant experience (in that finding a job that you have the qualifications for) is more or less similarily challenging for various groups (though it would likely be influenced by both accent, English aptitude, and appearance) - I would question whether the experience would be all that similar between a Dutch immigrant and an Arab from the Middle East in America. The fact that one can be reported to authorities for even looking like you're "a Muslim Arab" (often equated with terrorist) - makes me think that a Palestinian's experience in the land of the free would be rather different from that of either Chinese or European new life seekers. If this is what the movie will help articulate, I wouldn't change a thing about its subject matter as the story needs to both be told and heard.
Actually, she is a Christian Palestinian from Bethlehem, and while it shouldn't make any difference, that is one reason why the story is so compelling.
See the movie,before you put your foot any further intoyour mouth.
Great review. A whole new generation of Arab-Americans is entering the media, academia, govt. The result has already started to make a significant change in how Americans understand the Middle East peoples.
"My hope is that this wonderful film inspires more young Arab American artists to tell our story--so that through art, our experience will be better known and Americans will see what is to be loved about this country, but what also must change, to make it better."
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