AMREEKA DEPICTS PALESTINIAN IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES
A mother and son on the West Bank have long dreamed of life in Amreeka (the Arabic word for America). One day they receive approval to immigrate, thanks to a lottery drawing, but the letter arrives close to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Muna Farah (played by Nisreen Faour) leaves behind an estranged spouse, an acerbic mother, a supportive extended family, and a secure job in an Israeli bank that requires a two-hour commute through checkpoints. Along with her son Fadi (played by Melkar Muallem), she packs up a few belongings and places $3,000 in a tin containing cookies that will be used on arrival while living with relatives in suburban Chicago. While distracted during customs inspection, the tin is confiscated, a fact that she does not discover until unpacking at the new residence, where her fellow Palestinian female relative grows increasingly restive at the expenses run up by apparent freeloaders at a time when their host, a physician (played by Yussef Abu Warda), is losing clients because of his Arab appearance. While she disappointedly hunts for a job, Fadi finds punk schoolmates who are eager to avenge 9/11 by picking on him. Eventually, Muna lands a position as a fast food server and fryer, but pretends that she is working at a nearby bank to keep up appearances. When Fadi gets into a tussle at school, Muna is summoned, and Mr. Novatski, the Jewish principal (played by Joseph Ziegler), takes a personal interest in both. One day the punks hassle Muna at her place of work, she falls accidentally, and Fadi is eager to retaliate, resulting in yet another unfortunate subplot, though one in which Novaski’s intervention saves the day. Although the two Palestinian immigrants eventually find some peace of mind, the major loose end is how conflict at the school will be resolved. A second anomaly in the film is that the two Palestinian Christians never attend church, a likely place where they might find a way to reconcile conflicts at school and at work. The film is directed by Cherien Dabis, a Jordanian who observed similar prejudice while growing up in Dayton, Ohio, during the Gulf War. MH